The String of Fate
by redheaded997
Summary: When Mirra received a mission to kill a certain pirate, she knew she'd to get it done no matter what for the sake of her life. But on her way travelling with that pirate, she slowly find a liking to the crew and mainly to test the patience of the soon-to-be-killed-pirate, making her reluctant to carry out her mission. And before she knew, something is blossoming between them two
1. Meeting the Hearts

**_A/N:_**

**_Just to make it clean and clear (hehehe) this story will focus more on friendship and days living as Heart pirates. The feelings between the captain of Hearts and the main character is still wayyyyyy long to develop into something special. So be patience, and enjoy how the story goes._**

**_Also, n_****_ote that English is not my first language, but I speak in it almost every day_**.

-

**1\. Meeting the Hearts**

"How long am I given to do this?"

"4 months. We will contact you as usual after the date. Keep your eyes on the newspaper," the guy snorted.

His eyes lingered around the curve of the female in front of him. She does not have a perfect glass hour shape, but it is acceptable. Afterall, she is just 18 years old. She will turn to a very fine woman, and only if he is stronger than her, then there is nothing that could stop him from doing anything to her. Heck, he might ask few of his friends to join the _'meal',_ as he believed they all are eager to taste her.

"I can't promise anything. He is not like any other victims that I had handled. And the rumors about him doesn't helped much in describing him other than ferocious, vicious and cold-hearted bastard. "

_And I might die by his hand thanks to you guys,_ thought the girl silently in her head.

She just stood there, near the port while looking at the crew of her targets. They are laughing and partying like hell, didn't realized the cold stare given by her. The wind is chilling, yet it didn't stop them from shouting and dancing. It was warm during day time, but in this island, once the sun started to set, the cloud started to continuously blow breeze, wiping away all the heat lingered on the island to replace with a cold, breezy night.

But the weather does not bother her at all. She is known as a cold girl for a reason. Well, apart from being no problem withstanding coldness, she is typically a cold-hearted person. Might as cold as the person she is targeting now. But she didn't act like that on her own will. She put up a mask, covering her own true behaviour as she has no choice, otherwise she will be nothing but a ragged doll, being used and abused by those crazy and perverted crew.

**_Yes, she is part of that crew._**

Which she hated so much.

"You guys can leave me now. I will do the rest", the female said after sliding a small strand of her red hair behind her ear.

"And what's your plan to approach them?" asked another guy. He has been constantly yawning, too eager to get back to their rented inn to sleep.

"I figure it out soon", she snorted.

"Actually, we have a good idea on how you can approach them".

She did not realize as one of them approaching her from behind. By the time she sensed something is wrong, it is too late as they had stabbed her with a needle and injected a fluid that caused her body to go limpy and sleepy.

_Paralyzer._

She felt weak and fell on her knees, breathing heavily.

"Wh..hat's the meaning of this?" she asked, gritting her teeth trying to act like nothing, which failed miserably.

"Don't blame us, it was the captain's order," he replied.

"You can't get to him just like that. He will ignore you. So captain wanted us to do this", said another guy while he took out a short blade. The other two followed his action.

"Don't worry. We won't do much. We will just give you some cuts and bruises, and as for you, start acting like you are dying, so he can take you their ship. Then the rest, you do what you need to do," widening her eyes upon hearing his answer.

Cursing her captain silently, she felt as one of them tugged and held her up in front of the other two.

She closed her eyes, as she started to feel the pain of getting slashed, cut, punched and kicked. Blood is trickling down her wounds, while she bite her lips to withstand the pain.

If only she could use her devil fruit power, she swear she will freeze their ass up to the ground!

-

She felt cold on her back. Too cold. Not that she minded, but at this moment, she really appreciated if she could get some warmth. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The smell of steels and sanitized room invaded her nostrils, causing her to scrunch them up. She could also smell a faint scent of medicine and herbs, her number one enemy.

Slowly she brought her small palm to her head, trying to recall her memories, only to stop half way when she felt a slight pang upon the movement of her right hand. She saw her right hand was fully wrapped up to her elbow, and there is a wire connected to an IV drip and her wrist. Noticing other parts of her body – like her left shoulder, left palm, knees and thigh – are bandaged as well, she thought that it's not a good idea to move around much and waited for her saviour to come and explain about the bandages.

"Ah...so that's what happened," she sighed once she remembered everything. After being brutally slashed and beaten by the crewmates, they threw her near to the yellow submarine. Lucky for her 10 minutes afterwards, someone from the ship... no submarine, noticed her bloody figure and started to scream to the others to get her to their captain.

Knowing she is able to invade their submarine, she let her eyes closed.

And slept.

-

Another hour probably had passed, as the female opened her eyes again and blinked for few times to wipe off the bleary mode.

_Hmmm now what should I do. I haven't come up with any plan yet to approach them_, she silently thought, rubbing her left palm to give as much as warmth it needed.

Suddenly, the door to the infirmary room opened. She saw a tall, tanned guy with a mushroom hat entered, slightly shocked upon seeing her awaken form. He closed the door and silently walked to the nearby table, reading whatever he had in his hands.

Probably the report on her condition.

"You didn't have any vital injuries that could lead to death. You have cuts and bruises everywhere, and you need to be bandaged until they heal properly. Other than that, you seem fine. Any question?" he asked.

"No, thank you for saving me. I owe you one," she replied.

"What happened?"

After thinking a moment, "I was running away from a group of pirates. Got caught and beaten to pulp by them," she answered.

He simply nodded.

"You are Trafalgar Law, right? I'm Mirra. Nice to meet you," she introduced herself.

"Not gonna be so nice if you know who I am actually," he smirked, showing his white pearl teeth.

_And it won't be nice as well if you know who I am too,_ she snickered in her head, trying her best not to roll her eyes on him.

"I know you. They called you the Surgeon of Death. The devil, vicious and cold-hearted pirate. You are quite popular, both due to your power and your cocky attitude," Mirra smiled innocently at him.

He looked at her, not sure whether he should take that as a compliment or an insult.

"How long do I need to be here? I don't like the smell of medicines here. Can I go out for fresh air?" she then asked politely.

Well, to be honest, Mirra is not the type to sit in one place and do nothing. She loved to walk around, even if it meant meaningless walk that only wasting her energy.

"You can walk around the sub. If you need help, you can ask from any of my crew," he took off the connected IV drip from her wrist and walked back to the door to leave. Since she got the permission to walk around, Mirra excitedly put her legs on the cold floor and started to stand, only to find herself stumbling and losing balance.

"Woah... How long has I've been sleeping," she looked at his back, waiting for an answer.

"Three days," and he said as he left the room.

-

"Damn, I have been sleeping for three days just from these injuries? How pathetic," Mirra said to herself while slowly walking around the sub. She leaned against the metallic wall as a support to her legs, but her movements are still sloppy and slow, mainly due to the injuries on her knees. She groaned as she remembered a certain raven haired male just left her struggling to walk from the infirmary room, without even bothering to help her a bit.

_Aren't he a true gentleman?_ She sarcastically said.

And in the midst of trotting like a toddler, her stomach started to growl in different tunes, making any whales that she stumbled upon will probably mistaking her stomach as one of their species. But it's another story to be talked at other time, because apart of stumbling all the way down, Mirra didn't know exactly where she should head to. She didn't know where is the kitchen, and it seemed like not a single souls is around to help and guide her around.

But suddenly, she heard voices coming to her way, making her to thank God above for sending her a life-saver. Happiness washed over her face when two guys, a red headed male with green hat and a shades and another male with a hat written Penguin on it made a presence.

"Hey, you finally awake! I'm Shachi and this is Penguin. We are the crew of the Heart Pirates," greeted the red haired guy, while the guy called Penguin, smiled gently.

"Nice to meet you, miss -"

"Mirra. And nice meeting you two as well," she shook Penguin's hand when he extended it to greet her, followed by Shachi's soon after.

" I know this is quite sudden to ask, but I'm hungry. Do you mind give me some food and water?"

"Of course not. Captain did say just now that you might be hungry at this moment. So he asked us to get you and lead the way to the kitchen". So she then followed them quietly.

_Huh, so he did care after all?_

They reached the galley within 5 minutes of walking. At there, she saw the captain of the Heart Pirates eating few rice balls. It is lunch hour after all, so the dining table is packed with every crewmates sitting, talking and eating.

Mirra took a seat next to Penguin since it's the only available space while Shachi disappeared to the kitchen to get some curry rice for her. Once the food served, she salivated at it and immediately dig in, only to be disappointed with the not so flavoury taste of the curry. She looked around and noticed that the rest of the crew are eating, but judging from their face, she knew they didn't really enjoy the taste too.

"Sorry if the food does not up to your expectation. None of us here knows how to cook well, except for some people but they're not on cooking duty… and we don't have female crew to help around," Penguin said. To be honest, he also didn't have the appetite to eat much, but nevertheless, he still needed energy, so he forced himself to eat them.

Mirra shrugged at it. "No worries, I have eaten something worse than this. Its not that bad, just need some guidance and teaching, I bet any of you can cook a decent meal," she said.

"You can cook Mirra-chan?" asked Shachi.

"Yeah I can. Do you want me to cook for you guys?" She asked, while chewing the rice.

"If you don't mind" Shachi and Penguin replied together.

"Well, I don't, with one condition", she turned her eyes to the captain of this crew, who is currently sitting in front of them, listening to their conversations.

"I would like to stay in this submarine and travel with you guys. I have no place to go anyways. I just loved to be on the sea, seeking for adventures. If you don't mind letting me stay, I can cook with any of your crew's help, for your daily meals," she said, offering her service to the captain in return for staying.

He judged sceptically, trying to figure out any underlying purpose behind her request, before settling to ask, "can you fight?"

Humming at the response, "I don't think the sword and the daggers that I carried around with me are just some toys, right?" She asked. Mirra knew he knew she could fight and protect herself, as she believed when he saw her for the first time, she had her sword on her hand and few daggers hung around her hips. In this world of piracy and bad things could happen at any time and any where, seeing a woman yielding a sword is not something to take in lightly. As she either possessed the ability to run the tip through your heart or running a business of selling sword, and the latter is less likely possible to happen.

"Might I remind you that you got beaten by those pirates you told earlier? How strong are you?" he shot back.

Law didn't like it when she – or anyone, typically – gave him a smartass answer. It sounded like they belittled him and he didn't get those terrifying epithet just for nothing, – he ought to put some stress and whimper to whoever heard his name – and at the right moment, he wanted to stress out that he is in power and she is in his sub, so she should have been more at his mercy and behave, for the better of her own self.

Swallowing her own saliva, _damn, I didn't get beaten to pulp simply because I am weak. I bet you can get your ass kicked if you have been sedated by paralyzer or tranquilizer or whatever it was_, she thought silently.

Taking a deep breath, "I was careless. I was a bit drunk when they attacked me, and it was dark when it happened. I thought they were merely the people from the town," she explained. The conversation held between them two is listened tentatively by the rest of the crewmates, all excited to know what will their captain decide. Because if he agreed to her, that means they had the possibility of eating a better food for the next upcoming days, otherwise….

"You sure it's not because you got sedated?" he spoke behind his mug, seeping his coffee.

"Maybe that too".

...

"You can stay if I found your cook worthy. And since you are not my crew, I have no obligation to protect you, neither does my crew members," he agreed to her offer.

Law is also getting sick with whatever he is eating in this sub. It started to worry him, as lack of nutrients and energy might affect the whole performance of his crew. If she can cook well, or at least tasty enough to encourage his crew to eat more, then having her aboard will be a great decision after all.

"It's a deal," she sealed the agreement.


	2. Told you I can fight

–

**2\. Told you I can fight.**

6.30 in the morning. Way too early to be awake according to Mirra's dictionary.

And it's also the time where many souls of the Heart pirates are still lazing around on their bed, denying the fact that they need to rise soon to face another challenging – or boring – day and do whatever they always do by being a pirate. And in the world where sleep is the most important thing to Mirra, she found that waking up at this hour should be illegal and against all laws in the world and in books of religion.

But say whatever she wanted, she'd made an agreement – without thinking properly – and now she's bound to fulfil it.

"Huuarrgghhhh~" she stretched while yawning.

Sitting silently on her bed, she started to regret the decision of her life, which is to cook for the crew. _Who is in the right and sane mind will offer to cook for 19 people – excluding herself – thrice a day?_

She didn't know. And she definitely didn't want to ask anyone for an answer because it will only pinpoint how idiot she was.

And for the past three days, it was much more easier to be the one that instructing and giving order on how to cook to the cooks of the day – thanks to her injuries that atill limiting her movement – instead of holding the knife herself and chopping the ingredients and start frying. But no matter how many tips or how watchful she was with each of the cook, they still managed to ruin the food even by a bit and she decided since she didn't get paid to make sure the food are perfect, she didn't bother to fix it.

She sighed.

But now that she's fine and mostly healed, the luxury is no longer available.

"I should have excluded breakfast in my promise. I hate waking up early." She flexed her little fingers that no longer needed to be bandaged.

"Afterall it just a breakfast. Don't tell me they can't even prepare a normal meal? They can just spread peanut and butter over the bread, and that's still counted as a decent meal", the thought pounded in her head while she made her bed. Quickly, she went for a shower and changed into a light purple sleeveless shirt and a long black jean that followed her legs' shapes and ended above her ankles. She wore plain black sandal. Then she leaved her room – according to the captain, the room once stored all his human organs' collection before he moved them – while humming to her favourite song to lift up her mood.

–

_Where is she? Hasn't she wakes up yet? The crew gonna gather _– the opened door to the galley interrupted Law's thought.

He looked up from his reading, eyeing the female getting back from her trance after finding he's there and continued walking passing the galley to the kitchen which is separated by a counter in the middle. She started to take out all the ingredients needed.

"Is this normally your wake-up hour?" Law asked.

"Nope. I usually wake up later than this. I'm not a morning person, but since that I promised to cook for you guys, this is the earliest I can be," she replied. Her hand gently took out a bowl from one of the cabinets and started to pour flour in it.

"The crew normally eat at 7 am. You can't get it done by that time if you don't wake up early", Law watched she cracked few eggs into a bowl, skilfully, and without hesitation, pour some milk as she started to whisk them together.

_Pancakes_.

"Well sorry, but I guess from today onwards, you and your crew will be having breakfast at 7.30, more or less", she replied without even bothered to turn behind. Law could talk as much as he wanted with her, but she's not going to divert her attention when she's busy doing her things. That's why despite Law giving her a silent death glare to the back of her head, that normally got his crewmate whimpered, she didn't flinch nor react at all. Her full concentration is on the batter that she's steadily whisking while she heated the pan and distributed butter on it.

_This woman..._

"Why are you here?" she suddenly asked.

"To ensure you are not putting anything weird inside the food".

_I don't trust her. If she tried to do anything to my crew, I won't hesitate to cut off her head,_ Law thought.

She hummed.

_That explained why he was not here for the past mornings. His crews were the one cooking and I just giving instructions to them_, Mirra thought.

Pouring the batter into the pan, _it's still early for me to do anything yet. At least let me enjoy being away from my crew for a while_, and she smiled silently, plotting her next steps to fullfil her mission.

–

Being a multitasker person, Mirra started to prepare ham sandwiches while frying pancakes. The dining room started to get noisy, indicating the crew started to gather around the table. Some of them are whining because the food is not done yet, while others are just reassuring each other to be patient. Law is still on his seat, casually reading his book while drinking his coffee.

"Good morning, Mirra-chan. You need help?" Shachi suddenly appeared, leaning over at the counter. Turning to her back, Mirra gave her a soft smile when her eyes caught the sight of Penguin sleeping on the table, snoring with a bubble coming out from his nose.

"Yeah, could you bring this hot tea to the front? And also some plates and cups for your friends?"

"Sure will do, Mirra-chan." Shachi replied. Soon after, Shachi came back with a request for a cup of coffee from the captain. Mira just nodded her head, walking to the table with plates of heaps of fluffy pancakes on both of her hands. Shachi followed behind her with plates of ham sandwiches, a bit reluctant to bring it to the table.

Mirra just had to wonder why….

And once she put the food on the table, she sweat dropped before quickly took a step back. Everyone eyes are sparkling, and they immediately grabbed few pieces of pancakes, topped them with butter and honey, or for some of them, with grape jam that within a second, what were two mountains of pancakes are nothing but some lone crumbles that are left behind during the fight of who-gets-the-pancakes-the-most.

"Hey, leave some for me! I was helping her!" complained Shachi, eventhough he managed to grab few.

"Mirra's pancakes are the best! So soft and fluffy!" one of them shouted.

"So yummy!!~" another squealed.

"I want more!!~"

Ande despite all the mess, she managed to draw a smile looking at their antics. It reminded her of someone...or some people, to be exact.

"Aren't you going to eat?" She then turned to the side asking Law, surrendering to the fact that she will have sandwich this morning despite her tiny soul whinning for pancakes.

"I don't eat bread," he said while staring with distaste at the only available food left. Mirra quirked her eyebrow and hummed, about to question his choice of hating bread, but she erased the thought because whatever Law likes or dislikes has nothing to do with her and not worthy enough to risk her valuable life just by questioning him. So she took his empty mug instead, about to refill with a new batch of coffee, "I'll make some pancakes for you so just wait for a while", as she made the offer.

–

_The 'silent killer' strikes again! A noble man from the Reiya Family had been killed, stabbed right to the heart and was left to bleed to death. The marine suspects the murderer to be the infamous 'silent killer', since there was a yellow daisy painted with blood left at the crime scene. There were no other victims and witnesses __– _

BAM!

"Ouch," the sudden bump with someone sent Mirra off balance and she fell on the floor, whining as the pain shoot up from her bottom.

"I'm sorry Mirra-san. I didn't see you there," Bepo immediately held out his paw to pull her up to the feat. Knowing that the person in guilty was the fluffy ball, Mirra couldn't be mad at all and she jumped on him, hugging him deeply to erase his guilty.

"It's okay Bepo. I was the one in fault here. I was busy reading that I didn't focus on my way and had to bump into you," she squealed while hugging the bear more. "You're so soft~~"

"I'm sorry," Bepo apologized sadly.

Mirra giggled, "what are you sorry for? Don't be, silly~" and released him after petting his head. They both then walked together heading to the control room, mainly because Mirra didn't know where to go so she just followed the bear in charged. In the control room she saw Shachi, Penguin and Law discussing about their next destination.

"What are you reading, Mirra-san?" Bepo asked, watching the red headed female too nosedived into the news.

_Another nerd_, Shachi silently thought, referring the first nerd to be his captain.

"Hmmm? Oh you know, just some infamous silent killer, has been killing another victim again last week. Apparently, the marines just found the dead body yesterday. How slow can they be? If the person is an important person, won't they have found them earlier?" She grouched.

The conversation caught the attention of the other three males in the room.

"Damn, he's at it again? I wouldn't want to bump into him. The witnesses said that he did his job quickly and flawlessly. A single strike and the victims died", Shachi shivered.

"He?" Penguin quirked. "How you know it's a guy? It could be a woman".

"A woman? He can even take down that strong marine officer last time and it raised her bounty three times more. If the killer is a woman, she must be a hell of strong," Shachi voiced his thought.

"But she left a daisy flower in every of her crime. What kinda guy would use flower as a trademark? It's the girl thing," Penguin crossed his arm, disagreeing with Shachi's sexism that woman can't be strong as well.

Penguin had a point. But he is also being sexist by referring flower only for women.

"But does gender matter here? I think it is more important to know who's the assassin targeting. It doesn't look like the assassin has any specific targets; marines, noble peoples, pirate hunters and pirates, the assassin doesn't seem to have a specific pattern that we can guess their interests," Bepo butted in. He stood next to the captain and reread the map that he laid out for everyone to see.

"Maybe the assassin has a grudge with the victims", Bepo said.

"Or political reason", Law tried.

"Or out of sadistic behaviour", and Law felt like Bepo is mocking him when he said that. He had to look up to his friend's face to make sure he is right, but Bepo's poker face is another master in art. He's good in pretending to be innoncent.

...

"So, your point is?" Penguin and Shachi asked after a while.

"It means anyone can be the assassin's target," Mirra threw her long hair behind her shoulder. "And that include you guys as well. The assassin could be targetting any of you right now, so better worried about yourselves rather than the assassin's gender, don't you agree?" She lifted up her head from the newspaper, smiling dubiously that dropped a curiosity to the captain of the crew as he narrowed his eyes trying to read the underlying meaning behind the tone.

Penguin and Shachi just shivered and she just smiled innocently at that.

–

The next day passed rather quickly, as usual. Being under the water about 400m deep from the surface, there is nothing much to do. Most of the crew of the Heart Pirates are busy minding their own businesses.

Like example, the captain is busy attending someone, Uni and Penguin are fixing the broken door of the bathroom (thanks to Mirra), Shachi is nowhere to be seen, most probably disturbing the captain to treat his face (which was caused by her as well), and Bepo...well Bepo is here, sleeping soundly with bubble formed from his nose. Seeing the cutie is having the best of his life with his bloaty stomach raised up and down in rythm, the female got seduced to test the flufiness of the said stomach, especially after seeing how Law got very comfortable with him yesterday. So she slowly leaned against him, succumbed to the infinity level of fluffiness that she has never experience before.

She twirled her red strands between her fingers, recalling back her action towards Shachi previously, and she smiled with not an ounce of remorse. For it was Shachi's fault in the first place.

\- **_Flashback -_**

_Mirra had just woken up from her afternoon nap, sweating furiously for some reason. She decided to shower to cool off her body. With sleepiness still clouding her mind, she entered one of the available bathrooms and started to strip off from her cloth, failing to notice that the red-haired guy was in that bathroom as well, was fixing his hair. He had the guts to just stood there while gawking at her without making any attempt to make his presence noticable so she could leave._

_Fortunately, being an alert person, the sensation of having someone staring at her back made Mirra turned, and she saw Shachi was standing behind her, gawking with red face and bloody nose._

_Immediately, a vein popped out on her forehead and within a second, the poor guy was kicked right to the face, sending him flying out of the bathroom causing the door to break at the hinge. The commotion caused almost everyone to gather at the scene, only to see Mirra, wrapped in her grey fluffy towel was walking slowly towards Shachi, with a pair of sharp devil eyes locked at him and her red hair flying wildly around._

_They swore they saw a reminiscent of demon behind her, lusting for blood of her victim. And none of them is dare enough to calm her down._

_Had no Law intervened and forced her into another bathroom, everyone was pretty sure there'll be blood splattered around the sub and Shachi will be marked as the fallen comrade on this very day._

\- **Back to present -**

A sudden shock received by the submarine startled Mirra, waking her up from her light nap and the sleepy polar bear as well. She heard hurried footsteps vibrating through the floor, and a loud siren is screaming of emergency followed by a report from the person in charged of steering the sub.

"We got hit!"

"There are pirates at the direction of the south! They're aiming to take us down!"

"Someone gets the captain!!"

Mirra immediately sprang up from the floor, ran to the deck with the rest of the crew only to be greeted by a group of pirates that had successfully landed on the deck. Eyes widely looking around, she screened the current situation to decide whether herself joining the fight worth a penny or not. (Because obviously, it is not her ship or her crew that being attacked).

Unfortunately, the invaders didn't let any single person out listed, so they surrounded the female quickly with sinister laugh. Mirra smirked while eyeing her opponents, ready to have a bit of exercise. The opponents seemed over confident with their strength, believing the female in front of them didn't possessed much of a threat, but oh boy how wrong were they when Mirra suddenly slided forward and kneed up one of them at the jaw. The impact is too strong causing him to stumble backwards with few missing teeth.

Swiftly coordinating her movement, Mirra turned to her left and did a turning kick right to the head of another pirate sending him away and unconscious, and by retracting her kicking leg to the back immediately, she then spinned hook-kick the other two pirates that charged from her back while balancing herself by bending down her body downwards and pressing her palm against the deck.

She then back to her fighting stance, extending her right foot behind her, about a shoulder-width apart from her left foot, smirking and taunting the others as she watched four of them laid helplessly on the cold floor. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the crew is having difficulties due to the invaders cheap trick, by throwing smoke bombs to reduce their visibility.

She didn't deny the fact that the intruders are nothing but a dumbass for using that strategy when they themselves having the difficulties to determine the foes out of friends with bluey vision.

Suddenly, she started to have a funny idea, a game to play for fun sake. Her mischievous eyes didn't stop glinting as she walked to the front part of the deck, knocking out any opponents that jumped on her with their battle cry easily, while at the same time, she's slowly emitting soft white energy around her.

The air started to get colder and soft breeze whirled around. She stop walking and crouched down, putting her right palm on the floor. Concentrating on her power, ice started to form from her palm, slowly growing to the floor until it covered the whole perimeter of the deck with a thin sheet of ice. And then when she blew a mild-strong cold blizzard to wipe off the smoky and hazy air, and the sudden occurrence finally caught both crew's attention as they swiped their heads around looking for the source of it.

"How about we dance for a while, gentlemen?" Mirra straightened up, hands on her waists as she smiled gently.

Everyone stared in confusion, before one of the intruding pirates charged forward with his weapon raised high above his head, ready to attack. But the slippery iced-floor caused the poor guy to slip and fall backward. It was indeed a good and funny reaction that she received. Watching he shouted _'diiieeeeeeee' _then _'acckk!!' _as he fell comically, and face burnt red as he tried to stand but fell forward next, she couldn't contain her laugh. And her voice became more louder as more and more of the intruding pirates copying their previous fallen comrade; running with their weapons ready to strike only resulted with the same thing; either they slipped and hitted their back or face-planted on the iced deck.

Each time they tried to get back to her feet, they will fall again. And not to mention they have colourful words cursing at the female as she will only double her laugh and threw taunting words. Some of them even have girlish shout as they flapped their arms frantically while sliding from one side to another before colliding with each other and stumbled over the railing.

"Hahahaha boys... If you think you can fly, you are dead wrong! Wahahahaha!" she wiped away the tears that started to threaten to fall down.

But as much as Mirra enjoyed the view, it's not really interesting to watch the Heart pirates struggling as well. They all looked like a bunch of birds that just started to learn how to fly, flipping their arms around just to steady themselves. Mirra waited a bit longer, before she finally decided she have enough, because one thing for sure, she didn't want the captain, Trafalgar Law to misunderstand the situation and hunt her head instead for toying with his crew.

Getting to her stance by opening her legs a bit wider, she touched the deck again, and motioned with her index finger to create a huggable-sized pillars in front of each the Hearts. She proceeded with commanding them to hold into the pillars for a while. She then brought her right hand to the back and her left hand to the front, with her body slightly facing to the right, and swung them 180, muttering "_Blizzard Wave_", which subsequently generated a large and powerful blizzard plus tornado. The tornado swept away all of the enemies – luckily the Heart pirates have a pair of strong arm to hold the pillars tightly – with their shouts are the last thing they heard before they scattered around the sea.

And when the tornado is no longer within the deck's perimeter, Mirra unfroze everything and turned to her back to get inside before accidentally – out of nowhere – facing Law, face to face.

"Uwahhh", she fell on her butt out of shock.

The sudden shock made her tensed immediately, making her fighting instinct rang like she had just been jumped by an enemy, and the thrill that she felt didn't subside seeing how Law was staring intently to her eyes. The both of them continued they staring contest with no intention to stop at all. Mirra is waiting for him to jump on her so then she could make her move, while Law... only God knows what's running in his mind right now.

The tensing situation is broke free as Shachi popped out his head over Law's shoulder. He grinned widely despite having his nose tapped with a white bandage which caused his shades to be pulled a bit upwards, making him looked like an idiot.

"That was so cool, Mirra-chan! How did you do that?" he enthusiastically praised her, offering his hand to help her back to her feet. Mirra accepted the offer, exchanging glance with the raven haired guy in front of her before thanking the red headed guy for his help. Mirra had wondered for how long that guy had stood there and watched her. She hoped he didn't find her weakness. After all, it's impossible to detect one if she only did a bit of show of her power, right?

While Mirra is having an inner war inwith her brain, the ravenette, too, has been lost to his memories. He recalled the moment he heard the emergency siren, and he left the infirmary immediately with Shachi following suit. He expected his crew to already confront the enemies, and he was right. But he was surprised as he saw the female was laughing after delivered her final kick to the pirates that circled her.

Shachi was about to help her when Law stopped him, and they both watched as she walked calmly to the chaos before bending down and freezing the deck's floor. And when she started using her true power….

_A devil fruit user..._

Law decided that the woman reserved a sitting among his humans'-organs-collection in his personal freezer incase she decided to harm the crew.

"Hey, not too close". Her voice brought Law back to reality. He watched as the female tried to free herself from getting to close with the rest of his crewmates that started gathered around here.

"Instead of bugging me, why don't you go and check what they have on their ship. Consider their treasures as my payment to travel with you guys", Mirra shoved Shachi's shoulder away and walked away, still felt nervous as she could feel Law's eyes on her.

Law might not be happy with Mirra ordering his crew around. But at the back of his mind, he focused more in silently calculating the possibility of her being a formidable foe.


	3. This is not in our agreement

**_A/N:_**

_**Guest**: thank you for the review. I hope the story turns out well. It just that the story mainly focus on the OC, Mirra and the loving relationship with Law grows slowly, not an immediate one. So I hope everyone enjoy the slow progress and the slow burns between them._

_**Vi-Violence**: yeah thanx for telling the mistake. I used to write (y/n) before settling to a real name to the OC hehe..._

_Hope you guys and all the readers find the story to be interesting._

-

**3\. This is not in our agreement.**

"Since I was very young, I ate a Hyo-hyo (hail) fruit, allowing me to manipulate blizzard– and ice–based attacks. But I couldn't control my power back then, causing more casualties instead. A lot of things happened, and I arrived at East Blue, staying there for years before started my journey two years ago," Mirra chewed, enjoying pasta dishes after being craving of it for a long time, named fettucine alfredo, spaghetti bolognese with chicken mince, including a sizable well baked chicken lasagna.

"So, you're devil fruit user just like our captain. Your power is cool, Mirra", praised Clione.

"You should've told us earlier, Mirra-chan. It'll be a trouble if you fall into the sea and we don't know that you can't swim," Shachi spoke. He is still busy stuffing the food to his face that he didn't bother to look up at the female at all.

"Slow down, guys. You gonna choke if you gobble it up like that," and right after she warned them, Shachi coughed badly asking for water to clear up his clogged throat.

"Told you," she snorted.

Sensing a stare from someone, she turned around, only to find Law looking straight at her. Well, his eyes are but it seemed like he lost his focus while staring. He's definitely in his own world right now.

"So, your family still at East Blue?" Shachi asked.

"No. They'd long gone since I was very young. I was taken care by my grandma, that was until I–she passed away and I was sen–travelling around. Someone helped me and brought me to Foosha Village and I lived with a gang of mountain bandits there."

"You lived with mountain bandits??!!" Penguin gasped. His loudness has brought back their captain's mind to the present.

"It was not really that bad. They were friendly and really care about me. Afterall, I made friends with few boys around my age over there. We'd the best childhood moments ever!" She beamed.

"So, you're more ruffian than what we'd thought. That explain how you able to survive in this Grand Line despite having no bounty on you. Have you done any crime or offense yet?" Law asked. He'd just finished eating and done with his meal. He'd put his hat away throughout the dinner time, and for the few times Mirra had been watching him – just out of security – and she had to admit that he got a good look, if she looked pass the fact that the guy is so skinny and so... fashionable with his choice of clothes. _Spotted head and spotted jeans? Yeah, your choice._

With those sideburns and small goatee, and messy raven-blackish hair... _He's gonna be hella hot in few years_. Mirra believed so since he had this vibe just like her black-haired older brother.

"Impossible captain. She is too pretty and too cute to be a criminal!"

"She was the one who got attacked when we met her. If anything, she's more a victim than a bad person!" complained the other.

"And look at those bright innocent green orbs! They're dazzling under the sunlight, sparkling under the twinkling stars, shining under –"

"Enough with the nonsense," Law's order shut them all up.

Mirra chuckled, "you guys don't have to back me up just because you like my cooking. And that trick won't work as I won't get up to cook more for you guys." The sound of their sighed make her giggled more.

Facing Law again, "We reached an agreement where I cook as long as you let me ride this sub. I don't have an obligation to tell you my history".

"Wary of something, Mirra-ya?"

"I believe I'm just being self-conscious with my current situation. Getting a stranger sniffing into my history might cost my life in the future, don't you agree, Captain Trafalgar?" She smirked, putting her chin on the back of her hand while the elbow rested on the table.

"And how can I be assured your past history won't be putting my crew in troubles?"

"Still, you pirates are used to troubles. What will be the difference of having another one?"

"So you're admitting you bringing one?"

"Your words, not mine", she acted calm. Way too calm that no one could tell whether she's being serious or not. The others are simply enjoying the movie laid in front of them. And instead of having popcorns to complete the ritual, they have pastas. _Delicious pastas_.

They couldn't complain at all.

"All I can say is I did a bit of bad things, like stealing and threatening some people for money. And I've done them discreetly and secretly, so the marines couldn't catch me".

Law hummed. "If you don't have a bounty on your head then that's a less thing that will trouble my crew. But if the marines spot you, they could put a bounty on you, assuming you're part of the Heart Pirates. And there's no turning back once you've a bounty," Law said casually without batting his eyes on her.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll be fine", she assured him.

–

Days after the incident of getting attack by pirates last time, the Heart Pirates arrived at an island. It's a small island, with a population of no more than 100 people. The island is made up of two major town, called Asa (in the East) and Midori (in the West of the island). Together they are called Asa Midori Island, though none of the Heart pirates knew why it is called that.

Since it's Summer, the thought of going out and exploring suddenly died – for Mirra – because if anything, the scorching sun and the unbelievable heat is killing her. And the same went to the polar bear, because, naturally, being a tundra island's animal, Bepo is sweating furiously under his fur, that the joke made by Shachi asking him to remove his fur like the crew removed and tied their upper boiler suit around their waists resulted in the bear pulling out his hidden claws, readied to strike him in the neck.

Shachi immediately seeked refugee behind his captain.

And five minutes later, the sub is left with none other than the read-headed freeloader (not really one if she exchanged her stay with cooking service, right?), the fluffy polar bear and the Surgeon of Death (who refused to leave the sub and Bepo alone incase she tried to skin his favourite polar bear alive).

"It's hot~" Bepo's tongue sticking out in complain. He's practically dying. And so does the ice-user.

"Awww Bepo, are you alright? Don't worry I asked Shachi and Penguin to get us some ice cream to cool down a bit," Mirra fanned her face with her hand. She's wearing a light cream wide-shoulder, loose crop top that skimmed over her tummy with high-waisted shorts. Slippers are well welcomed for this hot season. (No one knew where she got the clothes. Probably in the backpack that she carried around when they found her...)

Both Bepo and the female laying on the deck to feel the breeze of the ocean and cool them down a bit.

Suddenly, Law came out from the door, heading to the two of them, wearing his favourite yellow hoodie. Only this time the hoodie is a bit thinner and it's a short sleeve, to compensate against the heat. His jolly roger proudly decorated the front part, as usual.

"You guys are looking dead".

"Don't worry about that" she looked at her skin. "We're still far from being medium rare".

Law snorted.

Grumbling for the umpteenth time, Mirra shifted her position to sitting in crossed-leg, "Bepo come over here a bit. I'm gonna cool us down." And she turned her palms facing upward as white energy with white thin blizzard swirled around them. She released more of the thin blizzard, making the cold breeze circulated and swirled around both of them, dropping the temperature between their perimeter to a comfortable one.

"Mirra-san! That's very cool. And it's cooling," Bepo scooted even closer, closing his eyes to enjoy the cool sensation. He looked very relief with the change, making Mirra squealed lightly muttering _'cuteness overloaded'_ in her mind. When Law saw this, he questioned her as to why she didn't do that in the very first place. Mirra nonchalantly answered that the fire and heat are her top weaknesses and controlling her power during these situations is hard and needed more energy because the heat will constantly neutralize her techniques.

Law stared in silent. He didn't know whether she's purposely telling him that or the heat has fried her brain just enough to make her too hazy to realize she'd just revealed an important information regarding herself that he could exploit to his advantage. But one thing for sure, he's thankful to the coolness as well, so he sat next to Bepo.

The three of them found comfort in the silence, letting the cool air basking against their skin (and fur).

–

Law is getting anxious. It's already past the afternoon yet his crew still haven't come back since last night. Yesterday, after the crew got the supplies and food needed, they straight went to the local bar for a dinner and some drinking session. Bepo declined for still feeling hot, and Mirra was already passed out on her bed. She wasn't kidding when she said heat consumed her power a lot. And again, not wanting to leave her alone with Bepo, he decided to stay too.

Law believed that even though the idiots drank too much last night and way too drunk on the next morning, they should be back to the submarine by now. **By afternoon.**

"Captain, do you think something happened to them?" Bepo's question broke the silence.

"Maybe they got caught by the marines here? If they were too drunk and couldn't get their mind straight, then..." Mirra's thought caused Law to shoot daggers to her.

_Scary..._

It is then Law decided he has enough of waiting. He looked pointedly at the other two, earning a displeasure grunt from the female for needing to follow him searching for the crew under the scorching sun.

–

All the questioning and asking – and threatening, obviously Law couldn't be gentler in gathering information causing almost all the people he'd asked becoming useless like a noodle – has led the three to an abandon mansion, deep inside the forest at the south of the island. When Law questioned the reason for his crew to be there, the villagers stuttered and tried very best to advert his gaze, coming up with excuses like _'pirates are wanderer',__ 'they're not paid to keep an eye on them', 'their babies are crying at home so they need to leave now'_, and many more.

And to Mirra, the best excuse was _'my wife will kill me if I'm late with the groceries',_ and then he bolted away without a second glance.

Funnily, when the man said that, the only thing he carried was a bottle of rum in his hand, no potatoes nor onions nor bag of fishes for him to bring back home. So it strucked some questions in the female's head.

_Something is totally off…_

"They wanted to explore the mansion", Law mumbled in disbelieve, repeating what he'd heard a second ago, still glaring at the mansion in front them all.

_Never mind I can just leave them here and run…. after I carry out my mission_, she thought again.

Pushing the heavy gate open, the '_creaaaakkkk_' sound added a scary effect to the already spooky environment thanks to the setting sun and ghostly whispers in the air. They walked through the yard where dead leaves scattered around and wild grasses in dull grey stretched along the path, reeking the lost of will to live and grow altogether. One lonesome oak tree stood by the house, swaying to the left and right following the rhythm of the wind.

Dark purple-bluish with too little tinge of orange engulfed the surrounding as the setting sun totally being covered by the tall trees, limiting the amount of light reached to the mansion and making the hot and sticky air changed into cold and numb. The sudden drop in the temperature didn't bothered Mirra much, but the creepiness created constant goosebumb, and with Bepo sticking closely to her chanting _'I'm_ _scared'_ over and over again didn't make her any calm.

"Bepo, I believe your source of reassurance is with Captain Trafalgar" she sighed when he jumped and dug his paws on her shoulders, scared over the howling sound.

_How did he managed to be so comfortable with me? We just met…_

Mirra glared up. The mouldy, rotting, dirtied-white mansion stood in front of them, warning them to stay away before the death came and greeted them. But the feelings being ignored, as the brave souls climbed the broken wooden stairs – each step creaking noises – carefully to avoid being swallowed by the old structure. Law reached over the brass-door handle, turning it over and opened the door silently, while holding his kikoku tightly with his left hand.

The musty smell of a mansion that'd been long abandoned filled their nose. It's very dim and uninviting inside. Something with messy hair, jagged teeth and missing one eye while the other dripping out of the socket could be crawling it's way right now.

"You can stay behind if you want to. My crew has nothing do with you", Law directed it to Mirra, but the soon he finished saying that, another howling of the air could be heard, and the rustling of the branches and trees caused the atmosphere to be creepier than it is currently.

"No thank you. I feel safer with you two here than staying outside there," she's being honest.

Law glanced over, before facing in front again and started to walk in. From the front door, they could see a long hallway stretched to the very end – to God knows to where –, a stair leading to the floor above on their immediate right and a door to a room on their left, few steps away from the entrance. They headed straight first. Dusts and cobwebs littered around the pictures hanged along the hallway. Some of the pictures are broken and out of the hinges, while some are just either turned over or upside down.

Mirra squatted down and ran a finger over the dusted floor. The thickness of the dust on her fingers, with little to nothing of shoes' marks that could sign anyone ever being here – except of theirs –, Mirra deduced the crew never pass this hallway.

She then jogged a bit further and turned to a corner, exited the hallway as she came upon a huge dining room. A big chandelier that used to hang on the ceiling has dropped on the black wooden table and pieces of glasses are scattered around, on the floor and the table. Broken legs of chairs are spotted, messily toppled around the area. Mouldy plates with leftover food and bones are on the table, and empty bottles of alcohols rolling around, causing unpleasant smell.

Law then followed suit, and then Bepo, but a sudden movement at one of the corners, near the cabinet used to display antique plates and cups alerted all of them. Law readied himself by holding his kikoku's hilt, yet to unsheathe the sword, Bepo is in his fighting stance ready to kick while Mirra has her hand on her sword latched to her weapon's belt around her hip, each of them readied for an action. They soon sighed in relief when it's only a big brown fat rat popped out, looking at the intruders and climbed around the cabinet before dissapeared into the hole in the wall.

They relaxed a bit before the scratch of tree branch scrapping at the window nearby made the red-headed squeaked and unintentionally, leaped to Law, hugging him tightly on his left side with her legs wrapping his torso. Also, unintentionally, she pressed Law's left face against her breast when another scrapping sound is heard, turning around frantically searching for the sound.

"What was that?" She hugged him even more when the wind howled through a broken window gap and papers scattered around due to the fierce wind. Law lost his balance while trying to breathe, causing him to step back before hitting the edge of the dining table. The shock caused a bottle of alcohol to drop and the drink spilled on the floor.

"Mirra-ya, l-let me go!"

"Ack! Captain Trafalgar! I'm sorry I didn't mean to!" She released him and Bepo rushed to their side, checking on his captain's condition. Law's gaze fell on her as if he wanted to say something but brushed it off when he saw her crimson face. He remembered where his face was when he got hugged, and just 'tsked' at it before assuring Bepo he's fine.

Mirra looked away trying to calm herself but she noticed the dripping alcohol on the floor, raising a question in her head. She picked up the bottle and sniffed in before glancing at the table again, analysing the condition of the leftovers. The sour smell of the alcohol – yet still drinkable – and only a small portion of the food's surface covered by mold with little ants and cockroaches feasting on it making her realized, it has not been too long since the food is here.

Besides, the alcohol hasn't fully dried up as well and upon further inspection, the room's floor doesn't look too dusty. There are still no footprints, though there are fresh slash marks on the walls that Mirra didn't think she wanted to know the cause of it.

"Mirra-san, we are leaving", Bepo's voice from the hallway has brought her back to reality. She looked around the room again before started to leave but stopped halfway when she felt something curling at her ankles. But there's nothing when she looked at them. She swiftly brushed off her legs, trying to throw away any bugs that probably trying to crawl over.

_Wearing shorts is not a good idea._

She rushed over to them, only to not noticing small vines peeked out from the hole on the floor of where she just stood, wiggling around.

–

All the exploration on the first floor led them to nothing, other than broken furniture, ripped curtains, old potraits and paintings – that most likely drawn by popular artists that could price at a hefty amount – peeling wallpaper and gasps in the floorboards.

Nothing of their interest.

But Mirra caught more than enough clues to guess the location of the crew, and she's about to inform the captain of Hearts about it.

"Hey, Captain Trafalgar, I don't know if you noticed this or not, but I don't think your crew is in this floor." She walked to his side, looking straight to his cold grey eyes.

"What did you found?" he questioned back. Probably trying to mix match his findings with the female's.

"First, there's no other footprints than ours from the entrance to any of these rooms and the hallway. Second, if a crew of 16 people entered the mansion, drunken or not, they'll be spook by the sounds around and will create a noticeable mess, but there's none other than the ones that we can clarify as already happened since long time ago. And eventhough there are few fresh slash-marks on the walls like those in the dining room and the living room, though I couldn't find its relationship with your crew, those marks have been there longer than a week. So I think they might have went to other floors to check around."

"But here is another thing," she folded her arms, pressing her breasts in the action causing them to look bigger while staring straight to his eyes, "there're signs of people living here. Judging from the yet-to-dry alcohol and the condition of the leftovers food with the mold, and the few new candlesticks that I found on the coffee table, someone could be here."

"What's with the candle Mirra-san? How did you know someone's here from the candles?" The polar bear started to feel itchy due to the dust and dirt sticking to his fur. He has been scratching over places out of control.

"The candlesticks are still new. When I found them, they're still inside the packet, stay still on the table. But not much of dust covered the top of the box yet the whole table is too dusty. And when I lifted up the candle's box –", she suddenly turned, body tensed while eyes spying around.

"What's wrong?" Law narrowed his eyes.

Mirra stood still, still staring around, before she continued "there's dust under the candle's box when I lifted it up", ignoring Law's previous question. "As if someone just bought it, recently, and put it on that table", she summarized.

"And your action just now? The sudden turn?"

"I thought I heard something snaking around. Maybe my feeling".

"So where should we go now, captain?" Bepo asked. Still scratching.

"Let's go upstairs".

"Maybe this mansion has a basement. Think we can find one?" She said.

"It will be no surprise for this big mansion to have one. And it'll be a good place to do something secretly and leave other floors looked unsuspicious", Law trailed off, ensuring the other two still following him as they heading to the entrance back.

But before they could go any further, the floor caved in on where Mirra had stepped, and she fell with a shriek before she hit her head with a blunt object. She heard Bepo calling her name before Law shouted something like _'get away'_ and _'what the hell is this?'_, and they struggled against something before the sound of something getting dragged away became the last thing she heard over muffled voice as she passed out.

–

It's no later than twenty-one hours, yet the island has turned to a complete silence with not a single person spotted to be anywhere other than their houses. Bars, shops and restaurants have long closed, curtains are pulled to fully covered the windows to block any view to the outside, children are safely tucked into their beds and adults stayed silently in their house, some smoking, some pretended to be calm by drinking their tea, some stood still in agitation while some chanting their prayers. Occasional howls from the wolves residing the forest are the only thing that broke the silence. Other than that, not even the crickets dared to make a sound.

"It's happening tonight", as he glanced at the full moon that proudly making its appearance in the sky. He turned to his wife, watching her biting her nails. Her face showed thousands of guilt. The same expression, the same reaction whenever it's happening.

"I feel bad… to them…" she muttered.

"Don't be. They're pirates", her husband replied.

"But they don't deserve this. They don't deserve to get caught between our village's problem".

"Someone need to be sacrifice, honey".

"But not them. Not any of the visitors or travellers. Not the marines. They're not supposed to die like this. They don't deserve this".

"Then who would you like to sacrifice? The villagers? Yourself?!!" The wife stayed silent. Didn't know what to answer. They couldn't leave the island. They couldn't reach other island to ask for help. Any connection to other places has been cut, and threats has been told. Any suspicious action will result to their death.

So they stayed silent. Listening to the demands of those _monsters_, in exchange for their safety.

There's nothing that they could do. Nothing at all other than surrendering to this fate.

"Sleep honey. Everything will be alright by tomorrow", the husband reassured the wife. And another howl of the wolves could be heard, and those with weaker hearts cried in silence, praying and thanking the unlucky souls for taking their places from being killed.

There'll be no tomorrow for the Hearts. But there'll be tomorrow for the villagers.

–

Mirra woke up with a strong burning sensation on her upper back between her shoulder blades, hissing painfully as her hand tried to reach that area, pressing it with her fingers to suppress the pain. Gritting her teeth, she curled her body, muttering few colourful words and took a few deep breathe to calm her racing heart. And only minutes later the pain finally dissipated, allowing her to exhale relief-breath multiple times.

But another pain shot through her head and she cringed. She ran her hand to the painful area, and when her fingers felt wet and sticky, she pulled them, sniffing at the liquid only to identify it as her blood.

_Damn, I must have bled my head_.

Mirra knew she had practically fell into one of the rooms existed in the basement. She couldn't figure out what kind of room is this, but looking at the gardening and carpentry tools stacked around, she assumed it to be a storeroom. The room is very small and packed with sharp tools, making her to sigh in relief for not having any of those to stab her to death the moment she'd fell.

Looking at the hole above her head, maybe falling to the basement is not a bad idea. Because now she could go around and search for the missing crew. And probably Bepo and Law as well seeing how they didn't help her after the floor caved in.

Turning the knob of the door, Mirra head popped out as she looked at left and right, discreetly trying to see if any enemies are around. Believed to be no one there, she silently snucked out, walking quietly while her back pressed tight to the wall behind her. It's the only choice after all. The hallway in the basement is too open with no furniture or anything that she could use to hide behind incase someone is approaching.

And when she reached the nearest door, she pressed her ear against it, trying to catch any sound that indicate living souls to be inside. But only silence greeted her. She pulled out her hair clip, about to pick the locked door but she halted when creaking sound of a door and descended footsteps from the staircase next to her are heard. She mentally cursed the person who decided to come down but at the same time, swiftly hiding herself as far as she could in the empty space under the staircase. She watched a woman, draped with a heavy brown cloak opened the door that she was about to pick, and immediately gagged when a strong foul smell invaded her nose. The woman closed the door, disappeared behind it.

_Oh Lord, I started to regret picking this sub to hitch a ride,_ she muttered while pressing her ear to the door, trying to pick whatever sound coming from behind it. She could hear some murmurs, like two people are conversing. Then there's sound like something being…butchered? Cut? Or sliced? She didn't know but whatever it is she didn't care.

She continued eavesdropping until a sudden shout could be heard coming from the next room. It sounded like one of the Heart pirates, and then another shout – in anger – coming from the room that she's been eavesdropping, something like 'let them go' and 'I'll kill you' along the line.

Mirra knew now that both of the rooms held Heart pirates, but she couldn't determine which one required her help the most. And while she's struggling to make decision, she heard footsteps coming towards her from the first room.

She hided back under the staircase, catching the woman shouted "don't worry honey. Your turn will be next after them and I'll make sure it'll be quick and less painful", to whoever inside the room. She watched that woman locked the door again and dissapeared into the second room – _is that a bloody hand she carried with her? _– before she came out from her hiding spot to break into the first room by cutting the door diagonally.

Instant regret, she forced back her lunch from lurching out because the stench is so much worse than what she'd thought. She felt like the stench of dry and wet blood mixed with the stench of rotten meat just bazooka-ed to her face that made her felt like to drown herself in a sea for a new fresh sea-shower.

She covered her nose with her arm – a futile act – and walked past through all the littered skeletons and bones on the floor. There are cages, lots of them with wild animals inside, mostly reptiles giving their stinky eyes to an intruder that they have never seen before. There are also rotten bodies – missing few body parts – shackled to the wall, few butchered crocodiles and snakes that have been dissected through their middle bodies and left opened for flies to swarm in, and she definitely didn't miss another wooden table on her left side with a body just being butchered at his elbow – probably the mad-woman just now caused it – judging from the still dripping blood on the floor.

A sound of clacking metal on her right made her stop abruptly, readied to spring to an action before she rushed immediately to the male that been kept chained against the wall. Both his hands are chained side by side, locked to the wall with few minor bruises spotted on his face that's enough to draw blood, though not too much.

"Captain Trafalgar! Shit, you're in mess!" She screamed-whispered, placing both of her palms on his cheeks, bringing them upward so he could face her.

"Hurry get me out of this," he gritted his teeth while wrinkling his nose over the smell.

"Wow, that's how you ask help from people? Seriously does it hurt your ego to ask nicely?" The smell might be killing her, but his ego only made her reluctant to release him from the lock.

"This is not the time for this Mirra-ya. My crew needs me and this place smells reek!" Law shouted but halted abruptly when cough caught his throat.

"You're right. This is not the time to fight," she immediately grabbed his hat and covered her nose, inhaling a deep breathe through it and thanks him for giving her a moment of fresh air, even though it's only the smell of his hair ( she rather breathe that than the bloody stench). And he accepted her thanks with his signature cold gaze.

She reached over to the shackle on his hand, trying to pick on it but slump over to him when her energy suddenly drained out.

"What the heck! You could've at least warned me its sea prism stone!" grabbing his collar, she brought him closer to her face "how I'm going to release you now?"

"Cut them. You got sword."

"I can't cut sea prism stone! They're as hard as a diamond! Don't you know where's the key? I can go get it – "

"No, you're not leaving me in this room. Whatever you do, just get me out of here!"

"Then you should've asked my help nicely, jerk! Behave or I'll leave!"

Her order obviously annoyed him, as vein started to pop on his forehead. But she ignored it, proceeded by leaning her body against his while stretching her hands to try picking on the shackle again with her bobby pin while at the same time trying to not touch the metal of the shackle itself.

She had to tip toe to reach the shackle above his head, and even that still made her struggled and resolved to lean even closer to him, pressing her body against his. Mirra could feel heat radiated from Law's body – either out of his pure anger or he simply that hot – seeping through her cloth and if it's not because of the stench killing the mood, she's pretty sure she will be blushing like a tomato right now.

In her struggle, Law took the opportunity to put his chin on her shoulder, slightly tipping to the left where her neck covered with strands of her red hair is, and obviously breathing in the scent with no tendency to make it less subtle at all. Mirra had to suppress from shuddering, mentally cursing that idiot captain for taking advantage on her in this situation.

_Who the hell go sniffing a woman around?_

She didn't care if the captain is suffering from the unpleasant smell, she didn't care if her hair smelled good enough to escape from the killing stench, she didn't care if he'd been locked in this room far too long for anyone to still able to keep their sanity, and she definitely didn't care if his cloth has absorbed the stench and now he is reek of death.

What she cared is to get out of this room as soon as possible and kick his ass for breathing to her neck!

When she successfully unshackled him, she immediately put his hand on her shoulder and wrapped one of her hand around his waist before leaving the room. Any other smell is so welcoming, even the musty basement as both of them then breathe in relief, taking as much as better air after few feet away from the room – though the stench still lingered around due to the opened door that couldn't be reattached anymore.

Not a minute had passed, but Law had abruptly stood up and headed to the second room where he believed his crew being held hostage. The door slammed open and almost out of its hinge as he made his way in with his usual death look. (He reeked death himself, so it didn't make any difference whether he made that face or not).

Mirra simply watched, still sitting crossed leg weighing the pros and cons to help around.

–

Law eyed the room that he just entered. It's totally different from the rest. It's big and very spacious and the air is much fresher from the outside, for whatever reason it is. The room looked like it used to be a wine cellar, with whatever remained from the stained dark brown-wine racks sturdily built around three sides of the room, along with two-sided row of racks in the middle, forming two bays. But instead of displaying bottle of wines, the racks stored multiple jars with various content inside. Some stored internal parts or organs, – humans', probably – submersed into formaldehyde and also what Law could identified as dried small animals. And the most obvious one is a jar containing eyes in various shades of orbs that gave off the sense of pretty if it's not to the fact that they are blinking.

The room is oddly overgrown with what one can perceived as vines, but there're no trees in sight for where the massive and block-size of vines came from. The floor is uneven due to the vines lapping on each other. In the middle of the room, three big vines intertwined with each other growing from the broken wine racks reaching to the ceiling, before they split into smaller vines, and bent down halfway, floating freely in the air. The crew, wrapped in cocoon-shaped – upside down – by the said vines swaying lightly in the air, trying to free themselves.

And not further from the three big vines stood two females, one wearing a brown cloak, who just threw a disassembled hand into a cauldron – shocked with the sudden interruption – while the other stirred whatever inside with a giant wooden stick. Both sniffed the air with delight as the flames shot up high around the cauldron making the sticky goo bubbled more, before backed to the reality of having uninvited visitor.

"Captain!" shouted one of the crew.

"Captain is fine!"

"Captain, we're sorry for being caught but please help us!"

"Captain, be careful of them. They have devil fruit powers!", are some of the crew's shout.

"'ow you get out for t'ere?" asked the same woman that locked Law in the previous room. She is as tall as Law, with sanguine eyes in hazel colour that glinted with slyness of a snake, attractive dainty nose and long dark bottle green waves, cascaded down her back. The brown coat that she wore covered almost her whole body, but one could tell she's wearing a full-length dress with flat dark shoes. The other one, who still stirring whatever inside the cauldron has the same sanguine eyes, but they're dimmed in baby blue colour, and her hair is short, bob style in blonde. She wore a knee-length summer dress with sandals and a bit shorter than Mirra if anything.

"You let him free", the blondie snorted.

"We locked 'im with sea stone. There's no way 'e can escape", the greenette snarled.

"Whatever".

Law spotted his sword floating in the air held by the vines, not too far from the two women and that big cauldron. He 'room' the area and transported his sword to his hand when suddenly out of nowhere multiple vines shot at him. Law immediately unsheathed his sword and cut them into half before jumping backward as another batch of vines shot through.

"Sis, why don't you handle him? Let me get my job done here", Law watched as a vine neared the blondie snaking around before passing her a jar and some herbs – _is that dried lizard in the jar?_ – from the wine cellar. The blondie dropped those things inside the cauldron, and a sudden green gas _'p__oof'_ in a small shape of a mushroom. She motioned her finger to the big tree and the vines lowered down bringing some of the crew to her height.

"What the fuck woman. Stay away from me", Shachi is one of them. He's being rigid, too worried with whatever that woman had in her mind right now.

"You think this one is fine?" the blondie asked, ignoring Shachi's protest.

"He'll make do", greenette replied.

"Oi. What are you doing to my crew?" Law watched in horror, immediately rushed forward when he saw the blondie took out a long knife while her hand wandered to Shachi's boiler suite's zip. But the greenette stood in the way, with her own set of knives aiming powerful slashes to the captain, pushing him back from his steps.

Another vine curled around Penguin, bringing his hands and legs opened widely like a starfish, when few more vines moved to his neck and around his wrists in sharped and thin-like-needle formed. The wiggles and struggles by both men turned futile as the vines only tightened their hold. Not even a second is delay as the vines stabbed Penguin immediately and specifically at his radial arteries and carotid arteries.

"Penguin!" Law, again is pushed back by the greenette. _Damn she is strong._

"What is my prey doing 'ere? You should be chained to the wall rig't now. 'ow do you escape?"

"Prey?" Law quirked his eyebrows.

"Answer my question", she hissed.

"I have no obligation to answer any of your question".

"Tch. Men always make t'ings complicated. Every single man t'at we caug't always try to run away when t'ey know all resistance are futile".

"No sane person will stay after witnessing that room".

"Yet you're still 'ere," she snickered and pulled out a vial from her cloak, green-yellowish liquid swirled in the tube.

"I'm here to get my crew back!" Law snarled. He has enough of the talk. It did nothing other than delaying his rescue work.

The greenette popped open the vile, and poured the liquid into her mouth, "and all the s'outs and running attempts only make us more ex'ilarated to feast on t'em", she finished by licking her lips delicately and threw the empty vial onto the ground.

"You know what we did to the men we caug't? We ate t'em. They're our source of strengt', energy, and most importantly, beauty and yout'" the greenette eyes glowed for a second, and she suddenly went missing from Law's central vision, before he got a hit to the stomach that sent him flying away. Coughing out blood, his peripheral vision caught Penguin's pale face, while the blondie – glowed in delight – tapping the point of her sharp knife to Shachi's bare torso, mumbling _'where to start cutting'_ repetitively.

"Penguin!!" Law shouted desperately, but he couldn't make way to his crew to save them. Even when he teleported himself, the vines around him will shot out immediately trying to stab or catch him, so he is forced to jump away before he could do anything. To make it worse, the greenette could turn anything that she touched into a stone – after swallowing that suspicious green-yellowish liquid she has the strength of ten musclemen! Making the situation even worse!

And currently, she's been playing dirty by spitting around and turned anything that her spits touched into a stone (get it? Spit = dirty XD).

"I think I start here", the blondie pressed her knife right in the middle of Shachi's torso, about to dig in, but...

"it hurts to know you didn't see woman as a source of your strength and beauty, but I'm glad I didn't have to become your prey," she's suddenly being kicked and the strong forced sent her crashing to the wall. Shachi sighed in relief when he saw a shadow of red hair covering his vision.

Immediately, Mirra cut the vines around Shachi – sending him _'plop'_ to the ground – and pulled out any of them that attached to Penguin to stop the absorption. Or whatever the process is called.

"Thank you, Mirra-chan. I almost thought I'm a goner," Penguin breathed heavily, covering his bleeding neck.

"Well at least I saved someone who knows how to thank me," she smiled. "Damn, did they suck on your blood?" she went wide-eyed.

"I-I think so," Penguin staggered.

"Ummm... a little help, please?" Shachi still wiggling trying to free his tied legs.

Mirra's sense of danger suddenly rang as she jumped away while snatching Penguin's and Shachi's back-collars when multiple of vines cascaded from the air like raining bullets. The force could plummet her to death judging from the hole created by them.

"Who the fuck are you?" shouted the blondie.

"None of your business".

"Why are you free? We caught everyone!!"

"It's not everyone now if I'm standing here, right?" Mirra pointed the obvious.

"You're so gonna pay for this, bitch! I'm gonna kill you for ruining everything!" she charged in.

"Wow wow. Rilex okay? I just happened to stumble to this mansion with that captain and a polar bear. I'll be on my way soon if you let me", but the blondie is not giving a damn to her idea as she chased her around with her vines.

"Saving this crew doesn't include in our agreement", she mumbled lightly but still could be heard by the two mechanics that attached to her like a leach.

She created an ice-wolf and it leaped towards the blondie while she made a beeline to the big tree where the rest of the crew are. By the time she cut some of them down, the blondie had crushed the wolf pretty easily with her big vines. And when another block of vines rushed into attacks, Mirra turned, blocking them with her sword, covering Shachi, Penguin and those that she has released from the fatal blow.

Today is not a good day as Law almost get multiple heart attacks as he watched the vines sending deadly attacks to his immobilized crew and he's not there to defence them. Though the red-haired female is there to protect and attack, but he didn't push the thought if she suddenly decided to run away.

"Free the others and take away Penguin!" Law heard she shouted, and then she pushed away the vines as she ran toward blondie with her finger posting a pistol sign. She shot an array of iced bullets, but it didn't work as the blondie used her vines as a shield. And when she tripped on the vines that being in her steps, he watched her face-planted to the vined-ground in the most indignant way.

"Shit!" she cursed embarrassingly.

A small shout from a distance caught both the raven-haired and the red-haired attention. And they both sweat dropped watching Shachi and Penguin got caught by the vines again.

"I just released you guys. Can't you guys at least protect yourselves?!!" Mirra shouted.

"Easier said than done! We don't have knives or sword like you! Our kicks won't do much to the vines." Shachi complained. Clione – happened to be one of the free crew – is frantically jumping around avoiding the vines. Law tilted his head downward, grumbling at his crew's antics.

"Oi Captain Trafalgar! You need to do something about your crew. I'm not their mom! And it's not part of the agreement for me to watch their backs!" she jerked her thumb towards the crew, irritated much.

"Then you handle this stone-woman," he '_room_' and simply transported himself toward the crew while transported the green-haired woman in front of her.

"The hell – " Mirra immediately jumped sideway as the greenette pushed her hand forward trying to grab her. And even though Mirra swung her sword to the side of the greenette's body, it turned futile as she has turned her body into stone. And another vine attacked Mirra's side sending her flying and coughing out air.

"This is not part of our agreement", she coughed a fit of air, loud enough for Law to hear them. Again.

"You guys leave this mansion now! I will handle this", Law ordered the crew as he ignored Mirra's protest.

"But captain! We're your crew and we need to fight with you as well. We want to protect you!"

Law only took a quick glance and he already knew they're not fit to fight at the moment. "Not in this state". He gave a 'this-is-an-order' look. And he is about to cut the coming vines when Mirra butt in.

_Wow... why do I protect them again?_

"Mirra-chan..." Penguin talked.

The red headed female glanced, "Bepo is not here. What could've happened to him right now", she said in a way of hinting _'you guys should leave before all of you turn into a pile of dead bodies'_. And she took out three daggers; two hidden in her combat boots and another one which is strapped around her left thigh before passing it to them. "Use these if you find it necessary".

_'Leave'_ is basically what she wanted to say.

"But Mirra-chan..."

"Find Bepo and wait for us outside. Tend to Penguin's wound. None of you should butt in into the fight. Captain's order," Law's stern voice sent a conclusion to their discussion.

Shachi shifted his eyes from Law, "Mirra-chan, please protect our captain", and pleaded.

"Are we making another agreement?" she watched Shachi's eyebrow furrowed, probably trying to figure out something that he could throw in to seal another agreement. The crew seemed to do some thinking face too, but with everyone is showing their constipation face Mirra doubt they are in a straight mind after being hanged upside down for God knew how long.

The last thing she wanted is them to strike a deal with their boxers as an exchange.

She sighed, "don't worry. I'll fight with him." And before she could change her mind, "I believe he can take care of himself. But if things get worse, don't worry. You've my words".

They hesitated at first, but they soon picked themselves up from the ground and started running to the door to leave their captain and the hitchhiker to fight.

"Oh no I'm not letting you guys go!" the blondie shouted as numbers of thick and big vines sped up to them. At the same time, the greenette spat out more spits toward Mirra and Law. No words needed to be exchange – both trusted each other – as Mirra squatted down touching the vined-ground, creating a trail of ice heading toward the crew, "ice wall!" and created a huge wall of ice from the trailing ice to block the vines from catching up the crew. The vines froze upon their contact with the iced wall.

Meanwhile, Law created his room, and transported the spits to the back of the greenette so it'll attack herself. But the spits won't turn her into a stone since it won't work on herself, because since when devil fruits harmed their own users?

"Shouldn't you transport the spits to the blondie instead?" Mirra said in _'don't-you-know?'_ voice. She received a twitch eyebrow from the male, and she thought it's better to diverge the conversation to something else.

She coughed. "So... who do you want? The blondie or the greenette?"

"The greenette," he simply replied.


	4. Chapter 4: An acquaintance

**Vi-Violence: **normally in three. but there are novels that make them in pair or even solo. so it should be no problem.

Anyways... I found this chapter to be long... is it??? Argggh I dont know if I should turn it to two chapters or let it remained this long. What do you guys think?

–

**4\. "I see you as a common acquaintance"**

Law has always been the one that believed in his intelligence and strength. He has exploit them to his advantages by pinpointing his enemies' weaknesses, overpowering them, tiring them down and finally, taking them down swiftly. And most of the time he came out as a victor with small and light injuries, boosting his ego even more with his capabilities.

Not to mention in every of his fight, his crew will be around to lend some help. Thanks to that, fights will be more or less like a walk in a park.

But right now, he's fighting alone, or at most, along with a red-haired hitchhiker. He had dismissed his crew from the fight, and he has no one to watch his back now. And he definitely not going to rely on the other person, because of one, his pride is too high to ask help from a stranger, and two, she's not part of the crew, which meant her helping him equal to indebt to her, which equal to need to repay her, which equal to need to watch her back too.

A surgeon of Death doesn't go around getting indebted and repaying back. He didn't get that epithet for this purpose either.

And the situation really didn't help easing his agitation as he watched the greenette, again, swiftly jumping around to avoid his attack. His luck is not by his side today.

"W'y don't you just drop dead already?" the greenette taunted him. She jumped high in the air, then propelled downwards with two blades in her both hands, clashing attacks with his sword. Loud screech rang in the air. The force behind her attack is no joke, as it doubled from the previous making Law regretted ever allowing her having her second dose of that weird green solution.

He pushed her blades to the side causing her front to be wide opened, but before he could pull another attack, the greenette spat her saliva. Slowly stoning the vines on the ground.

"You do realize you're nothing wit'out your teleportation ability, rig't?" the greenette spoke while bending down picking up her thrown blade earlier. Her talking pattern is really ticking him off. _What's up with her to drop the 'h' in every word?_

"You 'ave a great swordsmans'ip skill and I t'ougt I won't stand a c'ance against you, wit' your reputation and all. But your speed is not'ing compare to mine, that even your cutting technique can't 'arm me w'ile I'm inside your room!" she dashed in while licking her lips.

"Room," a thin blue film engulfed both of them, "tact!" as Law pointed his index finger upwards, performing a lifting motion to raise multiple stone thorns from the ground to impale the greenette.

She didn't lie when she said her speed is beyond his as she can easily dodged them all.

_Tsk_.

Stepping into the last stone thorns, she propelled forwards lunging her blades towards his chest as he stopped them with his sword, bringing his feet to kick her right side. But she'd anticipated this, so she dropped the blades and immediately tried to block and grab his leg at the same time.

_Shit!_

Law will definitely have his right leg stoned had he not teleported himself to her back, taking the opportunity to stab her from behind. But surprise surprised! She's able to tilt sideway to grab the coming blade with her stoned hand. The unexpected event momentarily threw his off-guard as she pulled the blade, causing him to stumble forward and grabbed his shoulder.

"Aa-arrrghhh!" Law shrieked in pain as he felt his shoulder is slowly stoning. Just a second of her touch and the technique already worked on him. Like a drop of ink on a bloating paper and it steadily spread out within its circumference.

Law pulled out his free hand, jerking his thumb to her chest as a small electric current started to form, "Counter shock!" and released electrical surge like a defibrillator. The only problem is the attack is not effective much, since it's incomplete and he is yet to master it. The attack though, hurt her enough to force her to step back, releasing his shoulder while clutching her chest, feeling a sudden electricity tingling unpleasantly through her body.

Law took a safe distance from the greenette, clutching his stoned shoulder all the while as he tried moving it around. It felt too heavy and stiff. Any nerves and receptors inside probably died or have been stoned as well, rendering him from making any movements or feeling any pain. Law shifted his sword to his left hand, immediately jerking his body sideways when two blades aimed at his stoned shoulder.

_She's trying to break my shoulder! I'll lose my right arm if I ever let her attacks_ – Law's thought was interrupted as the greenette leaped forward, pulling new set of blades out of her cloak and lashing out again. Law tried to keep his distance, continued 'tact'-ing but she avoided them so easily. Her eyes glinted in hunger, too excited to either plunge her blade to his chest or to turn him into a complete stone, making Law losing his cool by running away.

Law turned to see the distance between them getting shorter, so he readied himself to teleport above her, thinking of plunging his sword downwards to her body, but a flash of red line passed right in front of him, followed by multiple vines afterwards. He turned his head to the object, only to notice it was Mirra, just got sent flying by the vines. Few colourful words left her mouth and it didn't surprise him anymore, since he'd been hearing that for some time now.

With the red-haired got caught in between his and the greenette's fight, Law found an opening as the woman stopped her mad dah and locked her attention to the red-haired, cursing her for ruining her plan. And be the smart people he is, Law immediately jumped forward, cutting her into two at the waist.

She fell with a thud on the vined-floor, scrambling on her hands trying to get to her lower body again.

"Getting distracted is a big disadvantage, green-haired-ya", Law smirked, giving a relief sigh as he watched her struggles.

"Y-you! You gonna regret t'is!!"

"Only if you can get back to your feet." he grinned wider.

Law turned his back on her too quick, focusing his gaze on the red-haired instead with an intention to help her. But he stopped in track when he heard she shouted at him.

"Oii Captain Trafalgar! Behind you!"

Horror painted on his face when he saw the greenette jumped forward at the moment he turned behind. He barely flipped backwards before her hand could reach his face, calling out a 'room' before transported few metres away from her. Unfortunately, her hand reached his favourite mushroom-shaped hat and the stoning effect immediately took place without a second delay.

_Shit! Did the stoning-speed...increased?!! How in the world..._ Law went wide-eyed. He watched the greenette glued her separated body part with her stone power.

" Playtime is over, Trafalgar Law. Prepare for my wrat'!"

With that said, she released a great force of energy and the said force blew strong wind - hells know where it came from - , that rustled his already messy raven hair. Law knew he's screwed up.

His stamina had depleted so much, and the longer he used his power, the worsen he feels. On top of that, he couldn't fight properly with his right arm went limp and yielding a heavy sword with his left hand didn't feel comfortable much.

"Sister, please calm down. Your technique gonna affect me as well", the blondie staggered as she watched her sister went full power. She had dropped her cloak, and immediately it get stoned. Her power continued to spread to the ground, and etched within it's perimeter making the remaining three souls stood in wary.

Law's eyes shifted left and right, trying to find a place where he could stand, but there's none since anything touching the vine-floor will be stoned too. And it means literally everything. He saw from his peripheral vision that the blondie started to detach any vines rooted from the floor from getting to the ceiling. Instead, new vines entertwined with each other under her feet as a new makeshift floor rooted from the ceiling itself. It is the only place where her sister's power won't touch and affect hers.

The only source of his hope now is the red-haired, so he took his gaze to her, watching her gritting her teeth in annoyance as she eyed the blondie's action carefully.

**_[5 minutes backward before the scene with Mirra]_**

"How does eating a human make you guys younger and stronger?" Mirra blocked the coming vines with her iced-barrier.

"Like you would understand. Men are source of strength, and the stronger they are, the better the potion that we could make out of them. And if they are young, and better, untouched one, we can make a stronger potion to make us 10 years younger!"

"Untouched one?" Mirra jumped away as her barrier broke from the constant attack. She launched an iced-wolf that leaped around to the blondie.

"The virgin one, you dumbass." Mirra made an o-shape with her lips.

"Tell me. Is your captain a virgin?" the blondie's eyes glinted with hopes. At the same time, she motioned a pushing action with her palm and a huge vine came from her back to shatter the leaping iced-tiger without a sweat.

_So badass,_ Mirra whistled.

"I don't know, and I don't care. I'm not his personal diary".

"You're his crewmate. Surely you could tell if he ever slept with any woman or went to love hotel when reaching an island".

"First, I'm not his crewmate. I'm hitching a ride in his ship. And second, it'd just been less than a week since we met". She shrugged, creating an iced-eagle only to receive the same fate like the previous.

"Then why helping him? Why putting your life in danger for this?"

"I told you to rilex before this, didn't I? I tried to be on my way but you don't let me".

"You kicked me in the gut! What do you expect then? Me laughing at it!"

"That's because you tried to kill the red-haired male! Don't you know the rules??!! Red hair are the beauties and they go along with each other very well! I'm just protecting my kind of species!!"

That leaved the blondie irked in annoyance. She called more of her vines to loop around in the air before raining downwards to the red-haired.

"How old are you anyways?" Mirra continued cutting the coming vines. _Man, I feel like cutting wild grass_, she sighed inwardly.

"Women don't tell their age. I'm surprised you don't even know the rule".

She snorted "the rule only applied to grannies. It makes sense why you don't want to tell me seeing how desperately you need the man!" she snickered. "If you ever wonder, I'm 18 by the way, still young and developing!" Mirra giggled before jumping away from the raged vines.

"You brat! Stop running and let me kill you already!"

Sensing the coming vines, Mirra jumped away before swiftly grabbing one of the hanging vines and swung around, like a tarzan. The vines couldn't catch her and she didn't even have to worry of getting caught seeing how bad the blondie is in terms of speed. "Like hell I will let myself get eaten by cannibals!"

"We're not cannibals! We're witches! Get your damn mind at it!"

"I don't see any difference, granny. You eat people!" Mirra taunted her. One thing for sure, other than being good in running around, she is also good in running her mouth.

"There's a huge difference! Cannibals didn't discriminate gender. They eat both!"

"Then why are you being a picky eater? Do women taste bad? The men proved it the other way though."

"Eating woman will only make us older!" the blondie pulled out a surprise attack as five vines shot up from the ground where Mirra just landed. She could've been impaled if not to her last-minute somersault.

"You know what will make you look younger?!! Vegies, dumb-old-woman! In fact, eat more meats for source of collagen so you will be 100 times younger than average people!" Mirra made her way around before appeared right at her face. She cut her diagonally, but the blondie simply grinned watching her vines blocking the slash and took the hit instead.

"How dumb are you? That's exactly what we're doing right now", she mocked Mirra's death glare playfully.

"I didn't mean human's meat, dumbass." Mirra snarled. She missed the coming vines from her side, and they sent her flying for a great distance. And while the vines gave her a chase, she flied in between Law and the greenette, shouting profanities while cutting them down to prevent being strangled.

Her misery gave Law's opportunity as he cut the greenette into half. And when Mirra thought he'd settled his opponent, she saw the greenette reattached, and jumped at Law's back.

"Oii Captain Trafalgar! Behind you!" she shouted to warn him, and they both watched in horror when the greenette soon pulled out her trump card.Mirra noticed the blondie's agitation and didn't feel good with how she reacted at her sister's temper. But before she could register what's happening, she saw the vines within the greenette's perimeter turned into stone, and instinctively, she knew the only way to avoid being stoned is not to step on the ground.

Sound easy if you're a ghost and could float around.

Thinking for a while, _I could make this work as well._ _But it'll take too much of me and I don't know how long this will last_.

She changed her gaze when she felt the male captain staring at her, _ahhh of course. That guy needs help too,_ she sighed.

Mirra just had to lift up his leg by a bit, and slowly released her power to her feet and it immediately formed an iced-plate. She stepped forward, continued making more iced-plates whenever she stepped in the air as she's getting higher from the ground. The iced-plates spread out and connected to each other, leaving a solid long trail behind her as she walked to the raven-haired male.

"Hey, need a help?" she reached out her hand before him and yanked him up when he grabbed it.

"I didn't know you could do this," he muttered in relief while testing the strength of the ice under his feet. It'll be bad if it cracks from his weight and he falls to the pit of stone.

"Of course you don't. I don't remember ever pull a performance with my power in front of you. But listen, I couldn't hold this technique for too long. My power solely based on the moisture or water droplets in the air to form into ice, but this place is underground, tightly sealed with no windows to the outside so there are barely much of moisture here. We need to take care of them quick before there's nothing else to become ice and we become a sculptured stone". Mirra looked to the floor, watched as what once was a whole vined-floor turned into stoned-vined-floor.

And when her eyes trailed to the greenette, she watched her face seasoned and wrinkled. Her once healthy and wavy green hair became greasy and straw-liked with ample of them turning white. Her hair is flying around aggressively, replicating a medusa.

"Her power does befitting her Medusa's appearance" she slowly spoke to Law.

She took a glance when the male didn't react, "your shoulder okay?" as she directed them to his stoned-shoulder.

"You should worry about yourself more. What about your thigh?" he tilted his head looking at the injured thigh which is currently being froze.

"So, you noticed huh?" she smirked.

"Nothing goes away without my notice".

Apparently, Mirra was stabbed on her thigh with the blondie's sharp vine, leaving a two finger-sized hole there. She was able to pull it out before it could penetrate through it, but it won't stop bleeding. So, she froze the injury with her power, something that she normally does whenever she needs to stop any bleeding wounds before getting a treatment.

"Wanna hear my plan? I'm eager to get this done and leave." she asked. "Unless you have one first".

"No, I don't have one. Tell me yours."

She nodded but before she could say anything, a huggable-sized of cylinder-liked stones were thrown above them catching their attention immediately. Mirra jumped away, creating new iced-plate under her feet while Law floated in the air with his hand gripped tightly at hers since he has no place to run or step.

"Careful", Mirra watched the previous iced-trail shattered to pieces. "We can't stay at one place. Let's keep running so I can create more iced-trail for your footing", and again, she yanked him up with one hand, leaving the male questioned her true strength.

"Before telling my plan, here are the keys to the blondie's power. One, the maximum vines she could manipulate at one time is six, in any shape and size. Two, she can only focus on one direction at a time, which is the one her eyes looking at. If I'm attacking from her front, she can't focus on defending an attack at her back. If she turned, her focus shifted and her attacks to me will lose its momentum and aim".

Mirra skidded sideway while Law slided backwards when two vines attacked them from below, separating them. Another two vines came from above, each one aiming at them and Law called his 'room', readied to transport elsewhere. But Mirra beat him to it as she jumped to his front and created an iced-wall, freezing the vines upon contact. She then proceeded to create two iced-wolves, biting off any incoming vines.

"Stop moving around, you pesky flies" the blondie now shoot arrow of vines.

"Pay me, granny and I will consider it!"

"I'm not a granny!"

"Whatever you said, grandma!" Mirra teased.

Then she shifted back her concentration to the waiting captain. "Third, she is capable of creating continuous attack, though not too long, but it's advisable for you to run and avoid when it happens. Because after the barrage, she will retreat and watch from afar, taking a breath to rest for more or less 12 seconds before launching new attacks. And that will be the best moment to counter back with the rate of success of more than 70%. Any question?"

She really hoped he didn't. Because re-explaining will waste time and time is money. According to her.

"You noticed them all within a short period of time?" Law blinked in surprised. All this time he only heard the woman bickering and taunting the other and throwing some colourful words without pulling a proper fight. Who could have know she was actually investigating. She's a pain in the ass if she's his enemy.

"Play fool to fool the opponents. That's how I gather my intel". Facing back to the blondie and the greenette that standing on their respective lush vines and stoned-vines not far from them, she whispered, "so here's the plan".

–

Law had jumped away to one of the available iced-trails, courtesy to Mirra who had been spending time running around the room. His attention is back to the greenette, putting Mirra's plan into an act. Meanwhile, Mirra has her eyes on the said male, just to watch him in case he become useless and fall to the pit of doom.

And the blondie, noticing the red-haired is distracted by Law's and the greenette's fight, launched a sneak attack from behind.

Mirra pulled back quickly, running around as she watched over her shoulder two vines kept chasing her and kept destroying each trail that she created. When a new one approached from in front and she halted abruptly, she created iced-walls to defense, but the vines diverted their direction and came from her side.

Mirra managed to tilt her body slightly, as the first passed right under her nose, and pulled out her sword to block the second but the third managed to protrude her right shoulder. She screamed lightly upon the pain.

_Oh that's new_, she squinted her eyes while holding the bleeding shoulder. She noticed the blondie has another vile near her lips.

"Ufufufufu, I bet you didn't expect that, didn't you?" the blondie laughed before throwing the vile to the floor.

_Hope Captain Law can take care of himself. I have my own problem to worry._

"Overdosing on drugs is dangerous, granny. Especially at your age".

The blondie frowned at it. "You brat will never listen to my previous word".

"Granny, be proud that I'm admitting you catch my interest, especially when at that age you should be at home and do some knitting. But here is a warning. If you want to change like your sister, you better do now. Because from now on, we're going all out and there's no turning back," Mirra grinned widely and showed her canine teeth. Her bangs partially covering her eyes as cold breeze suddenly whirling around her, giving off the sense of badass.

"What the- Where did this wind come from?" the blondie asked.

Blizzard started to form around the area, instantly dropped the temperature rapidly. Despite being in the basement where no air current is available, Mirra still could make it possible, with extra effort and energy that's it.

Crouching down a bit, she made a mad dash to the blondie, extending her sword backwards before slashing her in a linear direction. She backed away. But not enough because the tip of the sword created overflowing ice in the form of crescent, encased half of her body with ice quickly.

"Aaa--aarggghh!!!!" the blondie shouted in pain before a pair of vines entwined with each other in the form of drills and break her free from it. She panted in shock, anger bubbled in her as the red-haired smirked.

"I told you granny. Better go all out~"

The blondie's shriek caught the greenette's attention and she saw how unsafe her sister is with that closed distance between her and the red-haired. But she saw and opening since Mirra's back is facing her. She shot arrows of sharped stones to Law and directed her heels to the other female, bringing her dagger high above her head to plunge it downwards.

The blondie saw the upcoming help so she, too, shot arrows-vined and grinned as she watched the female readied to strike down the vines. The blondie thought she didn't notice the sneak attack, but the unexpected thing happened, when a thin film of blue engulfed them all.

"Room."

And the red-haired and the greenette exchanged places, leaving both siblings' eyes as wide as a saucer. Maybe the blonde couldn't stop her attack, but the greenette still able to cut them down. The only problem is she didn't expect the red-haired to plunge her sword from above, and even worse, before she even knew what's coming down, she saw a figure of yellow and black behind her sister, readied to slash her.

"Brianca! Be'ind you!" the greenette shouted before a sword pierced her stomach.

The blondie turned only to be greeted with a pair of steel silver eyes of the surgeon before he tried to slash, but two vines formed and 'x' in front of her and Law's sword lodged in between. Blondie made a finger motion to counter attack so Mirra pulled out her sword from the greenette and rushed to attack, shifting blondie's attention to herself instead. Blondie's four fingers motioned downward, and four vines rained down from the ceiling, but Law shambled Mirra to somewhere safer, preventing a death blow to his companion.

_Six vines all are in used. Checkmate!_ Both Mirra and Law chuckled in their heads.

Mirra cut the blondie linearly as ice overflowed from the tip of her sword, and this time, completely encased her in the ice. Law had moved away to not letting himself getting caught in the ice. Both smirked satisfied with their teamwork.

"BRIANCA!!!!" the greenette shouted.

Both of them turned to face her as she wailed in pain for the lose. Mirra felt a pang to her chest when she realized they'd just killed her bloodline.

_Was it something I regret?_ She didn't know.

_Does my reason justify my action?_ No one could tell...

It's either to kill or to get killed.

Mirra closed her eyes, trying to throw away all those negative thoughts when suddenly the greenette shouted even louder and the room shook from it. Both of them stared in disbelief when the stoned-vines on the floor suddenly lifted and rushed to them without a single second spare.

"What the –" finishing the sentences is not an option when both of them where knocked to the wall – harshly – coughing out whatever amount of blood that rushed out from their throat. Mirra slide down almost touching the floor when Law stabbed his sword to the wall and held her waist tightly.

"Get a grip, Mirra-ya! This is not over!" Law shook her body in his arm. "Oii, wake up. Do your iced-trails or otherwise you'll die because you're slipping down and my shoulder is hurt from just holding you".

"Be soft with me, please. My chest hurt", she grumbled. Nevertheless, she managed to do as per told, and they both stared widely at their last opponent.

"What are we going to do with her?"

The greenette looked totally...mad. She had turned from 25 years old to 50 years old to like... she didn't know, 120 years old? Those seasoned face, sagged and slouched body and head that barely have a strand of hair... Mirra gulped and wished she will die before she turned 90.

"Back me up. Do something about her spits so they won't touch me", with that, Law created his 'room', engulfing three of them for the final battle, leaving Mirra with no option but to tag along.

–

It's not hard to defeat the opponents once they lose to their emotion. Especially when both Law and Mirra are a strong fighter.

But the problem is, their bodies are aching in pain from the sudden impact, and their nightmare stood tall in front of them without an ounce of pain from previous injuries. And what scaring them is the fact that the greenette moved too quick despite being very **very **old. Neither Law's nor Mirra's attack reached her.

She didn't joke eating those men brought strength and power. At least to her...

Sharp sound echoed as Law's sword clashed with the greenette's teeth, that are coated with stone. She pushed downwards forcing herself to gnaw on him, and Mirra took the opportunity to create iced-dragonflies – she's running out of power and the only thing she could create is small pathetic insects – aimed to the greenette.

The greenette strongly deflected Law's sword with her teeth before jumped to the nearby floating vine, and rushed down like a bullet to the red-haired. Mirra stood tall, hand readied to form an iced-wall, but upon a closer look, she turned away and started running.

_My God she scares me! She's like the phantom of the Anabelle jumping at me with that face! _Tears commically streamed down her face.

Like a wild beast, the greenette growled loudly, running from vines to vines before leaping in the air, still chasing her shouting "DIEEEEE!!" with her raspy voice.

Mirra knew she is closed. Her voice was too closed to give away her location. So when Mirra turned, she saw the greenette, _so fucking closed,_ making her tremble in fear even more. She felt like wetting her pants!

_This is it! I'm going to die by being eaten by this ghost!_ Mirra reluctantly surrendered to her fate, and at the moment she closed her eyes for more dramatic effect, Law intervened, using his 'tact' technique to impale her. The stone thorn gingerly brushed her side and she spat him. Supposed to be too far for the spits to reach him, but right now, everything is possible for this woman.

Law shambled in front of the greenette and she tried to grab him, but Mirra created two medium-sized pillars at Law's side to prevent her hand from reaching him.

As if the time had slowed down, the greenette's orbs glanced sideways staring at her – full of hatred –, throwing curses to her up to her seven generations. Mirra returned them with an upward glare, with her face trying very hard to say _I'm not scared of ghost. _(Though it came out as a constipated look instead). Her blazing long red hair made it more dramatic as they are flying around being whirled by the small blizzard.

And Law, breaking the slow motion phase, chuckled when the greenette shifted her glance to him, offering her a sexy smirk despite he himself looked like a potato with his hair sticking to his sweaty face. He ran his sword right to her heart, killing her in an instant.

Her body fell to the ground and the time started to flow as normal again.

Law watched the body laid soullessly. He nudged with the tip of his shoe, but nothing happened. The woman didn't twitch, didn't suddenly spring up, didn't snarl with her jaggered teeth, didn't spat her disgusting saliva and didn't even throw insults to Law and his seven generations. Knowing this, both are assured that she had finally die and probably on her way to the gates of Hell.

Mirra plopped down on her iced-trail, hand clutching her chest for she still could feel the pain from earlier massive impact.

"No one hurts my crew. And whoever does, there'll be a consequence of hell to pay!" Law muttered lightly, but she still hear it. She gulped, knowing her road to her mission is gerting harder now.

"Let's go. We are leaving the island as soon as possible". He reached out his hand to her.

–

Dragging their feets out of the mansion, both have tired faces, messy hair, ragged though steady breathe and bloody clothes, especially Law. He's been too quite and Mirra is neither bothered to question him nor ask his condition.

"Captain! You're okay!!!" the crew rushed the moment they stepped out of the gate. They all gathered around Law, comically crying out their tears expressing their happiness.

"Yeah... forgot the side chick. She's 100% fine from top to the bottom", Mirra sarcastically said while turning her face to the side.

"Ahhh Mirra-chan we didn't mean to forget about you."

"Thank you for taking care of our captain, Mirra."

"Damn, you look terrible. Must be a hell of fight, yeah?"

"Tell me about it", she shrugged. They all headed back to the submarine with every member present.

"Captain, how about your shoulder. Will they be cured?" Shachi asked worriedly.

Only silence answered his question as Law himself didn't know how to deal with it. Clearly his power couldn't be used to remove the stone. The stone is actually his shoulder. Removing them meant removing his own shoulder.

"Maybe you can try to dip it in the sea water. It could work," Mirra suggested.

"Sea water? But why Mirra-chan?" Shachi asked.

"Devil fruit users are weakened by sea water. Maybe, just maybe... the sea water could neutralize back the stone from his shoulder. Your captain can give it a try".

"Then, there's a way for captain's shoulder to heal. I'm so glad!" Bepo cried.

"By the way, Bepo. Where did they found you? You weren't in the room where Captain Trafalgar was, and you weren't with the rest as well when we barged in."

Bepo's face...well no fur to be exact turned into a crimson red as his head flung down in sadness.

"We found him in one of the bedrooms in the second floor of the mansion. He got a leash tied to his collar, a bowl of water and what I assumed to be dog's food on his side," Penguin whispered silently, but didn't passed from the captain's hearing.

"Ah... so they were treating you like a pet~" she grinned teasing him.

"I don't like it, Mirra-san! I'm not a pet! I don't want to get leashed!" Rivers streamed down his face, while some of the crew tried their best to hold their laughs.

Poor Bepo.

"Don't worry Bepo. You're not anyone's pet. You're part of the Heart Pirates. They'll die if they ever take you away from us", Law mumbled. Mirra smiled genuinely at that. She never knew the guy actually cared about his crew.

"I guess getting leashed is a bit better than getting shackled in a room filled with half-rotten body and reeked of blood stench, right Captain Trafalgar?" Law reminisced his nightmare by scrunching his nose, trying to forget the memory of the scent, if he could of course.

"How long you were shackled in there, though?"

"I don't know. Maybe 5 hours. Ever since you disappeared, I'd been held captive there."

"Do you guys have holy water in the ship?" she turned to Penguin.

"Why you need them, Mirra-chan?"

"Your captain obviously needs it to clean himself with. And these clothes", she turned to Law next, "are better to be burnt off, they are nothing but reek of death," and slightly tugging at his sleeve before receiving his signature glare. She simply brushed it off with a laugh.

Reaching the foot of the forest, they slowly trudged their legs on the path that lied between two villages, the Asa and Midori. Along the path there is a river flowing down from the forest to the sea. Small fishes and marines swam happily, without any fear despite a troop of 20 people walked nearby.

Mirra watched as the sun shyly took a peek from the horizon. It's such a beautiful sight, and the warmth is more welcoming as she felt the heat lightly kissing her face. she turned her head to the river, only to smile as she took noticed of the changing colour of the water.

"You guys wanted to know why this island is called Asa Midori, right? Why don't you look at the river?" she jerked her head to the river. Instantly, the crew grew excited at what they saw.

"WOAHHHHH"

"Pretty~~"

"How is that possible??!!"

The crew watched the blue river slowly shimmering to the colour of green, light reflected on the surface thanks to the sunlight. They all gathered around the riverbank, trying to figure out the reason behind it. It seemed like even the cold-hearted captain fascinated by the nature beauty.

"Most likely due to the phytoplankton that live in the river. They use chlorophyll – a green pigment – for photosynthesis, so they preferentially absorb the red and blue portions of the light spectrum and reflect green light. So the area with higher density of the phytoplankton population will be greener and likewise, it will be bluer", she dipped her hand into the stream, feeling the cold water washing away her blood-stained hands.

"But there might be other substances in this river that can absorb light too. Otherwise, depending on the phytoplankton alone won't be enough to change the colour fully. In the night, the substances most likely have stronger absorption on red and weaker on blue, so the river appears in the latter colour. It is also the reason why this island is called Asa Midori, meaning 'Green in the Morning'. The name actually refers to this changing colour river".

Mirra watched the crew dumbfounded at her explanation. She couldn't shake off their intimidating stares and gawks. Even the captain showed some interest based on his silent stare.

"Woaww, Mirra-chan! You're so clever!"

"You're like a moving encyclopaedia"

"A beauty with a brain!"

"A total grand prize to the world!"

"Oii oii...aren't you guys a bit exaggerating? It's all written in book. Knowledge is beauty, you know".

"Ah~ She's so humble", Shachi praised.

"What a lady-like. Totally not fitting to be with us morons," one of them said.

"She is like a female version of our captain. So strong, pretty and smart," said another voice.

"Wish captain could be a bit less egoistic and more cuter like her", the voice was shallowed but still enough to be heard by everyone, including the captain. For once, silence ensued in the sky.

Law unsheathed his sword, eyes darkened and slightly hidden beneath his messy bangs, and his signature frown etched on his lips. Immediately, the whole crew – saved for Bepo – hided behind the female and the polar bear. Law looked so pissed. And again, death reeked from himself.

Mirra and Bepo exchanged glance, before each swiftly stepped aside, extending their palms to the crewmates, "they're all yours", and said that in unison.

"Eeeehhhh???!!! Mirra-chan/san please noooooo!!!!" their wails disturbed the peaceful morning as neighbours popped out their heads from the house.

**_After quite some time..._**

Law was somehow convinced to not kill his crew (yet), so they proceeded to the dock where their submarine is. They bumped into some villagers, and apologies are accepted immediately just because the pirates are not used to them grovel in their direction and thanking them for defeating the witches. They are pirates after all, not marines.

Suddenly, Mirra's stomach started to grumble loudly, gaining everyone's attention.

"Wh...what!! I haven't eaten since last night!" she defensed herself.

"We haven't eaten anything since last two nights, Mirra-chan," one of them replied with a smirk.

"I was fighting. Its energy consuming and killing me."

"But captain also fig-

Another grumble can be heard, this time much louder than hers and everyone's attention turned to their captain, but no one said anything upon seeing his silent stare. Shutting their lips are the wisest decision if they don't have death wishes.

"Why don't we stop at any restaurant to eat first? I'm sure they are opened by now," Bepo suggested.

"Sure... if the boys agree to eat here again after being drugged by the villagers and sacrificed to two crazy women," the boys immediately shook their heads, frantically disagreed to Bepo.

"Let's jut get back to the submarine so you can cook for us," Law said casually walking forward.

"Now hold on, mister. What am I, your maid?"

"We've the agreement. I let you stay as long as you cook. If you refused, this will be your drop off point."

"My shoulder was impaled. I can't lift the spatula properly."

"You are left-handed. The one that got impaled is your right shoulder."

"But still. I can't do it alone. You need to help me."

"Let the crew help you."

"They are tired, hungry, giving a constipated face, and probably losing some screws in their heads after being hanged upside down for so long. Heck, they look like patients with cognitive dysfunction with high possibilities of cutting own fingers or run straight to boiling water pot!"

"Hey!!" Mirra earned their protest, which she ignored promptly.

"Bepo – "

"This fluffy ball need long shower. Look how dirty he is!" she interjected him before he can say anything. Law blinked, only to notice that his navigator is not in a good shape either. Well, he's not harmed. He's just too dirty and sooty, and no longer white like a sheet of paper. He truly deserved a bath.

"Fine! I'll help you after I take a look at your injury," he resigned. _She's not going away from getting what she want, won't she?_

"Thank you, I really appreciate that", she lightly put her palm on his arm. Law was stunned, started to think the female in a better light as a grateful person. "But you need a shower too. I don't want the food to reek of death", but her words shattered his thought and caused a tick on his forehead. She laughed lightly, and immediately snuggled closer to Bepo to escape his wrath.

Though she could feel he's throwing a dagger look at her back, she just snickered at it.

**_Somewhere at the back further a bit behind them, the crew watched them in silent..._**

"Don't you think captain and Mirra-chan are pretty close, despite just met with each other?" Penguin asked.

"I guess... Captain has been talking a bit more lately too, don't you think?" Shachi stated his thought.

"And has been around the sub more frequently. Wasn't he normally locked himself in his office, and only comes out when necessary, like giving orders, cutting our limbs for punishment and eating?"

"Nah...he rarely comes out to eat as well last time."

"I will do the same thing seeing how terrible we're when cooking," another said.

"Toshiro should have been our official cook. At least the food is decent", they casted a side glance to the said male.

"Yeah feeding a hoard of bull three times sure is fun. Not to mention a party every Friday night... I rather wear a dress than that."

"Really, would ya?"

"For a day, yes. And non of you will ever bother me to cook again".

The crew made a silent thinking.

"Nahhh not worth it. The day when Mirra leave our sub will be the day you continue her duty. Who knows when will we get a real cook next time". They refused. Toshiro huffed at them.

"So... Are we going to ignore the fact that Mirra had somehow bring a miracle to the sub?"

"If by miracle means a full and well feed stomach, then we're not ignoring it", Shachi grinned.

"Besides, it's fun watching her getting to captain's side. It's been so long since I've seen captain getting agitated easily. I wonder how long Mirra-chan will last before she received her punishment", Penguin wiggled his eyebrows at his friends. They too, laughing lightly at the thought when suddenly the air around them getting tensed. A small silence glare from the captain is all needed to stop their chit chats.

***EXTENDED ENDING***

Reaching the dock, Bepo helped to pour some sea water onto Law's shoulder while Shachi held him firmly by his chest as he's weakened by the water. The stone slowly diminished into small particles like sand, making them all sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, Mirra is busy dipping Law's hat into the sea water, scrubbing off all the small stones that got stuck between the kneaded thread. Penguin had to watch her to ensure she didn't face-fall into the water with her shaken legs. Yet, despite the hat had fully turned normal, she'd refused to return it, claiming how the hat needed to go proper cleaning to wash away all the 'death feeling'. Law just facepalmed at it and let her do anything as she wished, too tired to argue.

He eventually kept his word as he went for a long bath after treating her injuries. He dipped himself in his own bath tub and sighed when the hot water touched his sore muscles. Like the red-haired female said, he really tried to _'wash away all the death from him'._

After done with his shower, Law made his appearance to the kitchen, where the red-haired already started preparing the food. He walked closer to her.

"What can I do to help?"

"Oh captain Trafalgar. The fried rice is already done. Could you help me scoop it to plates?"

"That fast?"

"What do you mean?"

"When did you cook the rice? We were just back to the sub."

"It was yesterday's. I cooked them for lunch but no one comes back so I keep the leftover in the fridge".

Law nodded in understanding. He proceeded to do as told, when he called, "Mirra-ya".

"Hmmm?"

"Thank you for saving me back then," he uttered slowly. Only the sound of scooping could be heard. And also the light sizzles when the pancake batter meets the hot pan.

"You're welcome. After all I couldn't leave this island either if you guys are dead". She smiled. "I don't know how to steer the sub".

She turned, "I didn't say this before but thank you for saving me and took me under your care last time, captain Trafalgar. We're even now."

"Trafalgar".

"Sorry??" her eyebrow quirked.

"Just call me Trafalgar. There's no need for the captain". He turned to his side when the female remained staring at him.

"Do you look at me as an equal?"

"Don't get that to your mind. I'm pretty sure in terms of power, I'm a step ahead of you". Mirra snorted. "I see you as a common acquaintance. A friend but not too close, yet tolerable".

Mirra blinked. The word 'friend' made her a bit uncomfortable and hesitated to embrace it. She never planned to be friend with him in the first place. Because it will only get in the way of her job.

"Tra-san then". She said after a minute of silence. This time, Law quirked a questioning look at her.

"I'm calling you Tra-san. Your name is too long and a bit complicated ".

"Fine enough. The fact that you get to pronounce it correctly is surprising". Mirra lightly beamed at his word. She got praised for saying his name correctly. She's giddy at that. But then she remembered something.

"Does going around sniffing woman's hair consider your normal thing? Because I have to set a safe distance between us from now on then". She pushed away two plates of pancakes' mountains to her left, taking out another empty plate for another round of the batter.

Law coughed at that. "What?"

It took him a minute before replying. "I didn't mean to go sniffing you. But I have been smelling that filthy air, I need something… fresher than that".

_Yeah but you don't have to get too close to my neck,_ she lightly blushed when she called back the memory. Law noticed the pink hue on her cheeks, and thought she's getting sick.

"Are you okay? You look red. Feeling sick?"

"What?!! No, I'm fine. I'm jus a bit tired", she laughed akwardly.

Law gave a pointed look. "I'll determine that for you. Go to the infirmary room after breakfast".

She grumbled, muttering something like 'who's fault is that', but brushed him off when he asked to repeat.

Done with his scooping rice job, he continued watching her, took notice at the red hue that yet to subside from her cheek. Then, a sudden thought struck him.

_Could she be….._ He squinted his eyes as he slowly approached the female.

"Your hair… they smell sweet and nice. I believed you noticed that, right?"

"So what with it?" she jolted when her elbow touched his chest slightly as Law calmly closed their distance, but still leaving a small gap in between.

"Aloe vera and citrus scent? That's not bad", he rumbled taking few strands to his nose. His sharp gaze locked at hers as she tried to back away but he stopped her by leaning over.

" T-tra-san. What are you –"

Law's arm accidentally brushed over her stomach while it's reaching its target, cutting the woman's word abruptly. _A little bit more,_ he ignored the protest from the female as he invading her personal bubble. But he continued leaning over to reach his target. He caught a faint smell of daisy-like scent, but he didn't care. His needs and desires must be fullfilled right now.

"Mirra-ya." He breathed in. "I won't stop you from smelling good and nice. But just a bit of advice, watch yourself more since you're travelling with only males in this sub", Law said in a husky voice.

Mirra blushed even more and the colour spread to her neck, reddening badly and became crystal clear to Law's view. _She's not sick. She's simply not used to intimacy and closed distance._ Law concluded.

Finally reaching his target, "and hurry up with the pancake, will you? I'm hungry", he grabbed himself one, bringing it to pass right in front of her face as he withdrew himself from the closed contact. Without a piece of guilt, he shoved the pancake to his mouth, watching with amusement as the female finally back to her sense.

Snapping to her right, she realized Law was teasing her for a piece of pancake, and she tried to snatch it back but he simply pushed her forehead preventing her from getting any closer.

"You are too short to reach me", he snickered.

"Silence! I demand you to return the pancake back!"

"You sure you want it back?" Law opened his mouth, showing the chewed food inside. Mirra recoiled in disgust and stepped back.

"Never mind, keep it in your mouth and never let it go", she snarled.

"What ever you say~" Law then walked away with a satisfaction look, but not before taking the food to the front.

Soon, something like broken plates and glasses could be heard from the galley.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Law shouted. Mirra turned to see some of the cups shattered on the floor, coffee spilled over and pancakes from one of the plates scattered around, all happened because the crew immediately jumped at the food the moment they get in, creating an uninvitable mess.

Of course, those that behaved and didn't contribute to the mess stayed still at the door, hesitated to enter for a sit. Mirra gloomed over the food, and Law, his eyes are hidden under his bangs, but both emitting danger.

"Those that did these", she pointed to the floor, "are going to eat whatever there. Do I make myself clear?" she threw a dirty look.

"Y-yes!! Mirra-chan!!"


	5. The heart is aching from lying

**5\. The Heart is Aching from Lying**

It's one of the free days. No fights, no being chased by the marines, no encountering any isolated island with promising adventure lies ahead, no screams and shouts among the crew, and most importantly, no chores or specific works to do. The sub has surfaced hours ago, engines switched off to give them much break to prevent overheat or overwork that might destroy the components after days of working.

The crew has decided to pick the day as a laundry day, not that they have choices on this since the one and the only person in charged for this simple job has again, not do it. And since almost every one of the crew running out of clean clothes to wear, they have no choice but to do their own 5 days' worth of laundry, causing the bathrooms to be fully occupied.

Mirra didn't pass the chance to wash her clothes as well. But since she always washes her own clothes every two days, she didn't have much for today.

"Why you guys didn't ask Tra-san to buy washing machine? Buy the one that have dryer as well, so you won't have to dry them under the sun", She, along with Clione, Ray and Anko occupied one of the empty bathrooms, all busy washing their clothes.

"We did. In fact, captain already changed it three times and he has enough of it since some of us didn't know how take care of it", Clione replied. He has brown hair, but only his bangs can be seen as his head is covered with a long dark blue hood that has a tip at the end. He wielded sword, but he didn't always carry it when on board. He normally has a navy-blue sash around his shoulder, held together by a clip, designed in their jolly roger shape. The stash held his sword on his back.

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently some of us think that the machine can handle a massive amount of clothes, including the suits together, and dumped they all in one washing, leading to the poor thing to breakdown".

Mirra gave a side glare to Anko – a blue haired guy with a red tattoo under his right eye – who sit next to her right side.

"Hey, don't look at me. I know exactly how to handle that machine", he said once sensing the female's glare. Anko is the person in charged – or more like forced to be in charged – of the laundry. Law never really put him to the work, but after several begs by the crew to make him do their laundry simply because he lost the bets, Law simply brushed them all off with 'whatever you guys want' and disappeared to his office. So technically, Anko is in charged for all of the laundry, but with his attitude, the crew is suffering from 'one-week-you-have-clean-clothes,-the-next-two-weeks-you-won't'.

"That wouldn't happen if you do your duty everyday".

"Like I don't have other things to do".

"Yeah, like answering those stupid crosswords on the newspaper?" Clione retorted.

"You take that –"

"Guys, please… we are washing clothes here. Hold the fist till you guys done", Mirra cut in, totally not interested to get in between Clione's and Anko's petty fight. Meanwhile, Ray, who is sitting next to Clione has been too quiet all the time.

Ray has white-blue hair colour with pitch black orbs and pale complexion. He fought with two daggers, kept in knife sheaths strapped around his thighs. He also carried boot knife in one of his boots and throwing knifes equipped at the belt that overlay on his uniform. He is one of the few that have made minor changes on how they're wearing their uniforms to accommodate their fighting styles and weapons. It is permissible if it is helping them in fight.

"You're not talking, Ray?" the female questioned.

"if you ask me something then I will…" he smiled. Mirra chuckled at his cheesy word.

"May I ask the reason you joined the crew?"

"He got kidnapped by Shachi," Clione interrupted. That raised a question in Mirra's head.

"Not by force though. I willingly let myself get kidnapped".

"How did that happen?"

"I once worked at Fix the Lumber Company at Selic Island and Polar Tang was one of the customers that I fixed. Shachi saw my interest on the sub and persuaded captain to recruit me. I was hesitated that time for sure, because I don't feel like leaving Rain on the island alone. And it never came to me to live on sea as a pirate. So, I declined – "

"Hold on. What is Polar Tang? And Rain also came from the same island like you?"

"Polar Tang is this submarine. That you've been hitching for two weeks."

"Does the name come from its birth location? At the North?"

"Not it, Mirra. We called the sub as she. And to your last question, I don't know the reason behind her name".

"Hmmm… why not he?"

"Shachi and Penguin insisted she. So we just follow," Ray shrugged.

"And how about Rain? He worked at the same company as you?"

"No, Rain was a farmer. We're siblings, difference by two years. He felt more at ease doing plantation rather than working outside with people…that doesn't like him much", Ray murmured at the last sentences. Not really heard by the female.

"So….what happened next?"

"Rain got attacked by some of the villagers that night and he was locked in the house while they burned it. Words reached me quite late and by the time I got there, nothing was left. I knew who did the shit and ran to their base. Heh, not really a good thing to do when I'm ganging up alone against a group of underground criminals". Ray smirked at that.

"And when my life barely hung at the loose rope, Shachi and Penguin burst in. They had saved Rain from the fire, by coincidentally passed through our house, and Rain begged them to help save me knowing that I will head for a revenge. I was stunned at what played to my eyes. The two easily fought and defeated the criminals with their martial arts skill. No injuries spotted, and no blood other than the criminals' tainted their suit." He took a pause and smiled at the past.

"So you feel at debt and decided to join them?"

"Heh, not quite. The truth is, Rain was the one eager to join them after being saved while I was not. I wanted to stay, but I lost a dual with him and immediately being kidnapped right in front of my ex-boss". He ended the story.

"Then what's the point of going around the story? Won't it be easy if you just straight to the point?" Mirra huffed, childishly pouted her lips.

"It's more interesting that way, isn't it? In fact, I didn't feel the time passed while getting my laundry done", he raised his last cloth and rinsed off the water.

"Ahhh not fair~ you distracted me from doing my laundry" Mirra immediately grabbed her undergarments and started scrubbing violently, while the two males diverted their eyes from the clothes.

"Ray, don't wanna tell how you lost the dual with your brother? It doesn't look nice to tell a lady a younger brother was stronger than the older…" Anko wiggled his eyebrow suggestively. Mirra immediately turned to Ray, giving a questioning look before the said male sighed.

"Well, I guess I could wait you guys for a while. Rain accidentally slammed my balls when he slipped and fell on me. Then he took the chance to lock me down to the ground for 10 seconds, because that was the rule to winning, and Shachi and Penguin declared him as the winner".

"Wha – isn't that cheating?" Mirra laughed heartily at that.

"It didn't matter what I told them. They wanted to recruit me at the first place anyway and any objections are denied".

"Then, how about you Clione? Why you joined –" their conversation was cut off when Hiro suddenly entered the bathroom with a hamper containing his dirty clothes.

Hiro has dark brown hair, with light brown orbs. His hair slightly wavy and is combed backward, with a strand hanging down on his face, revealing a pair of menacing eyes. He has butt chin. His skin is a bit tan and he is well built, which Mirra believed will shine gorgeously when oil is applied and he's standing shirtless under the light.

He scowled when he saw her, which raised a question on her head.

"Hey, how long more you four planned to hog the bathroom? Others want to use them as well." He pointed his thumb to his back, but the four doubted they will see anyone standing behind him as if they are queueing waiting for turn.

"Why picked this bathroom if you wanted to wash them alone? Besides, there are more empty bathrooms at next. No need to chase us out," Anko said. He noticed the scowl that was directed to Mirra, but even he couldn't understand why.

"Which bathroom I choose is none of your concern. And I want my privacy. Like hell I will wash while having the girl's eyes lingering on my underwear," Hiro spat out.

"What, do you wear some sort of flashy underwear or something?" She raised her eyebrow in question.

"Maybe he scared you can tell his member size from his underwear. Not so big while his body is," Ray snickered.

"You know it's not true at all and I have a big – "

"Okey, I don't want to know any of your guys' sizes so drop it off. I'm done anyways so you can have it to yourselves," Mirra immediately squeezed out the remaining water from her clothes before standing up to leave. Clione gasped at it and when Anko stood up as well and smirked at him, he got whinier for being leave behind.

"Not my fault you're a slowpoke," Anko snickered, watching Mirra gingerly wiped off the soap's residue from his nose.

"Says the one who can't get his job done on time", Clione muttered back.

–

There's something majestic about nineteen-man pirate crew's entire laundry fluttering over the deck.

It is a hypnotizing clean linen that produced minty rosewood scent. An army of cotton bundles existed in many colours, and aside from an array of ivory boiler suits that are the most distinct, there lies spotted jeans and striking yellow-and-black hoodie with the jolly roger, that no doubt belonged to the captain. The laundry lines crisscrossing from the masts to the deck railings, and the tacky patterned boxers – heart-patterned – and unmatching socks flapped proudly in the breeze. Luckily, the lines only occupied the back side of the deck, leaving the front and the top deck empty for the crew to sprawl around, too tired after bathing in laundry soap.

"Aren't you warry of me?" the red-haired female clipped her own clothes at the empty space, the one reserved only for her, a little bit at the end of the line and far from any scavenging eyes, who may decide it is fun to go hunt some female's underwear.

"On what reason?" Ray, who just done hanging his clothes leaned against the mast, waiting for the female.

"I could've been planning to slaughter each one of you. So, it's understandable if you guys be more warry of me, like Hiro. But you guys seem like... fine with it. Fine without putting any surveillance to watch me around". They both left the back deck and went to the front, joining the rest of the crew.

"We gave you lots of stare since the day you first stepped on this sub. We thought it's fine to give you a bit of privacy now."

"So, you're fine with the fact that I could've been planning to slaughter you all?"

"Will you?"

"I don't know... Won't I?" Mirra quirked her eyebrows, playfully teasing the silver haired.

Giving a second thought, "you could, but I don't think it will happen. You have plenty chances. In fact, you're in charged with our food and it took a second to drop something poisonous inside. What stop you till now?" he replied.

"The fact that your captain watched every time I cooked..."

"And how about the case when we got kidnapped? What made you helped him to save us?"

"Well I can't leave the island because I don't know how to steer the sub."

"You don't have to. You can just get a ship from the people and set sail on your own". It left Mirra speechless at that.

"It doesn't matter whether you'd planned it or not, but I believed you won't do harm on us", his hand lightly rumbled her hair, leaving a mess.

"Hey!" she protested while running her fingers against her hair to fix them.

"You helped to save us last time. And you even assisted our captain to do so. You could've achieved your goal to kill us all without dirtying your hands if you just leave us in the hands of the witches, but you didn't. So, I doubt you'll ever try to harm us now." Ray smiled cheekily, flashing his pearly white teeth.

He is sure a handsome one. A pleasant to the eyes and could swoon any girls with his charming smile. Polite and soft-spoken intellectual made him looked more mature then his age is. Being not a pervert added to bonus as Mirra is more comfort to be around him, as he always shooed the crew when they started to act pervert.

Mirra felt a slight pang in her heart knowing that she had successfully deceived them with her kindness. She knew the time will come when she will show her true intentions, but secretly, she's started to enjoy sailing with this rambunctious, loud and slightly perverted crew, far from her own crew. Their laughs, jokes and helps made her feel welcomed, a feeling that she longed for.

And the thought of betraying them made her feels bad.

_Isn't there anything I can do to change my fate?_

"You okay, Mirra?" Ray's hand on her shoulder brought her back from spacing out.

"Yeah, I was just thinking," she replied, emotionlessly.

"Hey, they you are!"

Shachi's voice brought them two to turn their attention to him. Shachi is on his way to Penguin and the rest with a deck of cards in his hand, and he decided to invite the female as well. Of course, Ray tagged along since he has nothing else to do.

Sometimes later, the card games changed to 'Truth or Dare', after few of them have been caught cheating while playing and Mirra is not so excited to keep getting stuck between bickers and shouts. She thought Bepo purposely fell asleep to avoid the commotion, and seeing how peaceful his face is, she regretted for ever agreed to the game.

"Penguin, I thought it's captain's privilege to use Bepo's stomach as pillow?"

"Nah... it's the privilege to me, Shachi and captain. Of course, captain is the highest priority, but so do us, since we're the founder of the Hearts pirates", Penguin snickered while leaning even more to Bepo. Others simply grunted in jealousy.

"My turn! Mirra-chan, truth or dare?" Shachi cut in.

"Hmmmm dare! And give me your worst! And remember, no perverted stuff involved," Mirra said just for precautions.

"Don't worry about that. Here is your dare. You are to eat these chillies within a minute," Shachi handed over a bowl of red and green chilies. Mirra stared back, gulping down her own saliva and started to regret her decision.

"Don't you think it's too much, Shachi? You gonna kill her," Penguin asked worriedly. Shachi took a long look at the bowl and glanced up to an innocent begging look of her, before sighing and took out a handful of the chillies.

"There, should be fine now", earning a silent stare from Penguin instead.

"No worries, we have water, milk, honey and some sugar here if she couldn't take it, " Shachi dismissed Penguin's disapproved look, still grinning. The breeze blew away his hair lightly, giving out a cheerful yet childish feature of him.

"Well this is no problem, I just swallow them as whole – "

"No can't do. You must at least chew them. If you lose, you need to give 200 belli to me."

"Fine! Don't underestimate me you jerk, I'm gonna do this," Mirra shouted, raising her hands up to the sky.

"Ready? One minute begins from...NOW!"

A halfway to the bowl and she started to chug down the water. The first jug didn't seemed enough as she took the second one. What was once shouts of worries turned to a chant, shouting 'chug' 'chug' 'chug' without an ounce sympathy to the struggling female.

She tried to force another handful of chillies to her mouth, but it seemed her hand has its own mind as it resisted itself from getting nearer to already burning lips. Her other hand tightly clenching the jug's handle that Penguin believed she already cracked it with her strength.

In her struggle, one minute passed and she lose the challenge. And she then hastily uncapped a two-litter bottle of milk and continued chugging. Some of the liquid trailed down to her cleavage and she's pretty sure the boys are ogling at it right now but she couldn't care less. Her lips are on fire and tears are threatening to spill.

"Welp... it's look likes I went overboard with the amount. You okay there Mirra-chan?" Shachi started to feel guilty.

"You think?" Mirra slammed a now half-empty bottle of milk on the deck, panting heavily with her eyes twitching involuntarily. She could feel her lips swollen, face painted with red hues, stinging ear and messy hair with saliva slightly drooled off her mouth, probably giving a so not lady-like look but who cares?

A second look at her face is the only thing it takes to make Shachi laughing hysterically.

"Ppffttt I'm sorry Mirra-chan, but you look so funny. Ahahahaha, your lips...they are funnily swollen!!"

"Shit, Shachi. I don't think it's a funny matter", Penguin scooted closer with his fingers lightly holding Mirra's chin inspecting the lips. Upon the contact, Mirra tensed and backed off a bit, and Penguin apologized for being touchy with her.

Shachi's non-stop laughs was cut short when Ray bonked his head, creating a lump while the rest snickered.

"Sorry", Shachi silently muttered.

After a while, the game continued and with no one wanted to take the truth, the dares gradually becoming more creative and unplayable, resulting with everyone surrendering and paid for the lose instead.

At one time, Penguin put a light dare on Rain to invite their captain for the game, and minutes after, they heard his scream followed by a long plead asking for forgiveness before it went to silent.

Rain never came back.

"What happened?" Mirra asked. The others are in wonder too, except Penguin. His smirk proved he knew very well what happened.

"Captain told me he's taking a nap and here's an advice, Mirra-chan, do not disturb our captain for something trivial. Or you'll be punished."

"And here I'm the devil for feeding Mirra-chan chillies," Shachi complaint.

"Why? What kinda punishment he received?"

"Either captain cut out one of his body parts and hide it away for the rest of the day or cut him in multiple pieces before placing them around the sub."

Shachi shuddered, "you don't want that to happen to you."

It was a short silence as everyone's faces, except Mirra's turned gloomy as they reminiscing some nightmares that they'd face before.

"Well, since Rain is out... Penguin, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Hmmm... oh here's one. How does your hair looks like?"

There's a static silent, before "they're short".

"Dude, is that even an answer?" Ray sweat dropped.

"Yeah, how your real face looks like without that hat? Come on, take it off," Mirra inquired more. Her hand still busy scooping sugar and let it melt in her mouth to sooth her burning tongue.

"We agreed one question at a time, guys. Also I'm taking a question not a challenge," he shrugged. This raised unsatisfied look among the others, because no one, except Shachi, Bepo and Law has seen his real look without the hat.

"Wait, none of you knows how his hair looks like? Not even the color?"

"No, since he didn't share his room with us and his stupid hat always there on his head. I bet it's glued hard enough to be removed anyways", they mumbled.

"Shachi, will you tell me – "

"I'm sorry Mirra-chan. But me, captain and Bepo promised to Penguin to not telling anyone how his hair looks like."

"Come on dude, how long more you gonna hide it from us? Aren't we friends?" one of them asked.

"Whether showing my hair to you guys or not doesn't have anything to do with our friendship. I prefer to keep it this way," Penguin snickered, adding more fuel to his friends who already fumed in anger.

"Just take off that damn hat already," one of them lunged forward and grabbed his collar.

"Hey, no fighti– " Shachi suddenly be pushed from his back to lay flat on the deck while his hand is twisted behind.

"Quick, grab his hat!"

But Penguin swiftly kicked the guy who's holding his collar, squared on his chest with his boot, sending him flying away from their closed distance before he could do anything.

Immediately standing up, more of them lunging themselves towards Penguin, hugging his torso and holding his arms, still trying to snatch the hat away. But Penguin faced no difficulties to unarm himself and use his martial art skills to throw them all.

Shachi is no different as he simply rolled over his body, trapping whoever holding him down just now beneath him.

"You are 100 years too early to hold us captive," Shachi grinned. Mirra giggled at the guy's misfortune, before he mumbled a help to the female.

Feeling to participate in the plan of 'snatching Penguin's hat', Mirra got up and quickly caught Penguin from behind. She twisted his arm, brought it forcibly behind his back and jerked it upwards while another arm is wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer to her chest.

"A good martial artist like you shouldn't be taken lightly when locking your movement," she smiled gently, putting more force as she pulled the hand at the back, earning low hisses from the male. Slowly, Mirra slide her leg in between Penguin's legs, readied to hook him and make him fall flat on his chest, but something stopped her when a thought came to her mind.

_What if...there's a reason he doesn't want to show his hair? I can't breach his privacy..._

Feeling the grip loosening, Penguin immediately freed his locked arm and dug down from the arm around his neck. Putting a great force on his legs, he then back flipped over Mirra's head, landing smoothly with a loud thud behind her.

Mirra whistled being impressed as he is still able to do the jump despite her being so close behind him.

His stance said it all. It won't be easy to tackle him again now that he's aware of her. But since she's no longer interested to catch him, she plopped down back on her previous sit, spooning a spoonful of honey to her mouth. It earned a questioning look to the rest.

"Mirra, why you let him go?" one of them asked.

"We could've gotten look at how his hair is," another one said.

"Let's catch him together, Mirra-san!" another voice can be heard.

"I'm not interested to see his hair anymore," Mirra shrugged off and scooped another spoon of honey before humming in delight over the taste.

"Wait, what? Why suddenly – "

"Forget about the woman. We can handle Penguin alone. Someone holds Shachi. I bet he's going to help Penguin to escape."

"I don't think Penguin will ever need my help from you lots," Shachi laughed gleefully knowing very well the strength of his friends.

Hence, the chaos began, killing the tranquillity of the day. Lots of 'thud' and 'ouch' can be heard, but so far no one is pinning down Penguin. Shachi is still holding down the previous guy to the deck, and he's been complaining at how unfriendly Shachi is pinning him down right now.

"While you still on the floor, do you want some honey?" Mirra gingerly offered.

Eventually, the noise had invited the captain of the crew to visit them all. Knowing how stupid they can be sometimes, Law believed one or two of them will end up in his infirmary room soon enough. And he needed to prevent that from happening because medicine is getting expensive and he's not too delighted to spend more than what he already did for the female and his previous injuries.

Hiro tagged along with an intention to scold anyone that's making the noise.

The door to the deck opened and Law stepped out of it, followed by Hiro closely who started shouting, "what's going on –" but he was sent flying to the inside when a body collided with him. Law was lucky to not get caught because he was fast enough to dodge the flying missile, leaving Hiro at his own misfortune.

Penguin who is still in his throwing pose started to sweat bullets, though he's glad the captain able to doge otherwise he'll be punished for sure.

As for the rest, some of them fell unconscious with lump on their heads and only a few of them still standing, staggering to their feet, refused to give up. On the other hand, Bepo is sleeping nearby despite the commotion, Ray and Mirra sat next to each other, be the only spectators and unappointed cheerleaders and lastly Shachi comfortably sat on the poor guy whom already lost all his energy to fight.

"What's going on here?" the captain's voice brought everyone's attention to him, except those that passed out. Everyone went silence, trying their best to form words.

"We were playing game," Mirra said with cheerful voice.

"And the game requires you guys to throw punch and sending each other flying?" A brow quirked up on Law's face.

"At the beginning, no. But they decided to spice up the game and here we are." she hummed slightly at the lovely taste of the honey.

"Shachi, explained." Law demanded.

"Yes captain!" Shachi immediately rose from his sit, "we were playing Truth or Dare, before Mirra-chan asked how Penguin's hair looks like. Penguin refused to tell us, so the others got enraged and decided to snatch Penguin's hat to look at his hair. Penguin is just defending himself, so things got head wired and they were throwing out each other," Shachi pointed his finger to Penguin and the rest, clearly not wanting himself to be part of the commotion contributor.

Taking a full glance at the surrounding, he noticed a half-full of a bowl of chillies, few empty jugs, one and a half empty bottle of milk, ketchup, soy sauce, chilli and tomato sauce, some half-eaten fruits like apples and cherries, along with bread and toothpaste lying around Mirra's side.

Whatever the hell they had challenged each other, Law didn't want to know.

He heard the female mumbling asking Ray whether her lips still swollen from eating all those chillies, receiving a 'no' as a reply, causing him to sweat drop imagining whatever pain her lips and tongue has suffered from their stupid game.

"Clean up all the mess and bring those passed out inside. We are having a short meeting in the galley, and everyone must present," Law jerked his thumb backwards and readied himself to descend back to the submarine before, out of sudden, Hiro burst out of the door with a howling shout.

"Who the fuck throw Clione at me?!!"

"Me, you got a problem with that?" Penguin said, clearly not guilty at all.

"You, motherf– Hold on, what's going on here!! What's this mess!!!" He looked around before his eyes immediately fell on the female that is still busy licking the honey-coated-spoon without a care to the world. Immediately, all of his accusation fell on her, and he rushed forward towering over the female.

"YOU!!! What did you do?!!" he shouted accusedly.

Mirra's eyes shifted to left and right, before "nothing..." him.

"Don't 'nothing' me. And why are you eating the honey from the jar! This is for everyone and no one wants your saliva-coated-spoon to dig in and out of the jar!" Hiro snatched the jar, only to find it's empty.

"Hmmm... you want the spoon instead? There's a little bit more left here. Sorry since there's no more honey in the jar for you..." she offered, only for the male to slap her hand away, sending the spoon miles to the deck. Mirra frowned at it.

_Seriously, what's his problem?_

"You finished the honey? Then did you finish those things as well?" he pointed his finger to the remaining chillies, milk, sauces and whatever there.

"No, I couldn't finish the chillies because its too spicy, so I drank up all the water and the milk, as well as feeding on the sugar and the honey." Despite knowing the answer will only enrage him more, she stood by the policy of being honest even if it's nonsense.

"Don't just eating our food like it belongs to you!"

"It was part of the game, if you gonna blame someone, blame the one who asked me to eat chillies", she jerked her thumb to Shachi, whom simply putting his hands in his pockets and telling Hiro to chill down.

"You even started this commotion and look now everyone passed out!"

"Hey, they are the one who wanted to look at Penguin's hair. I was just asking him the question and dropped it afterwards since he doesn't want to talk about that," she knocked his finger away.

Maybe doing that is not a good idea, since the male started to have gas out of his ears. But Mirra won't sit still if his accusation finger is getting nearer to her eye as if wanting to poke it.

"You should be grateful I didn't participate in this childish fight or I might have freeze everyone in ice cubes," she snorted, completely annoyed with Hiro trying to blame her on everything.

"No need to get so work up, Hiro. Why you have to be so hostile towards Mirra? She is our guest," Ray stood up in defence.

"Yeah, because she is a guest, she needs to know her place very well. Who gives her the damn right choice to eat all the food?"

"She compensated them back by cooking our meal, its not like she is freeloading," Shachi totally didn't like with the idea of making Mirra feels bad while being on the submarine. He liked to have her as a company here. Having a female on board at least make them more energetic and cheerful, because who in the world would love to spend 24 hours bumping into male's face all the time?

"Look big guy, if this ever make you feel good, I actually did spend some of my money to buy your groceries".

"You did?" Law walked casually to her.

"Yeah, ever check what your men brought back from the market? I couldn't find enough ingredients, especially veggies and fruits to feed you all. You're a doctor, you know eating too much of carbs and fats are not good. You have to watch your crew before they turn to a bunch of useless-fatty-Hearts".

"Though I must apologize since I used your name when asking them to buy the stuff," she sheepishly continued.

"Captain, she even used your name to get whatever she wants!" Hiro must be really mad since he started to sprout saliva while talking.

"I said I'm sorry."

"I'm not happy with you using my name to order my crew, Mirra-ya, but I let it go this time. If you have anything in your mind to voice it out, like our healthy diet or anything that you need, tell me so I can take a proper measure." With that, Law turned to his heels, "and everyone inside the sub, we are going to have a meeting now."

"Captain, you can't – "

"I see no reason to scold them for playing games and Mirra-ya did mentioned she paid some of the food. She might be hitchhiking, but she did her job just like what we've agreed. Also, everyone should respect Penguin-ya's privacy to not show his hair. If anything, it's the fault of the others to force Penguin-ya to knock them unconscious." Law's stern replied resulting Hiro in biting his lower lips in dissatisfaction.

"Don't waste any more time and let's start the meeting."

–

Mirra plopped down on her bed, sighing for the tenth time of the day. A little bit tired than usual, thanx to some of the crew's members irritating attitude. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she remembering back what had happened.

**_Flashback.._**

It has been an hour since the meeting carried on, and Mirra has isolated herself at the back deck, where linen is drying under the shy sun. She felt more at ease with the scent from the clothes invading her nose while reading the book that she has borrowed from Shachi yesterday. She is not part of the crew, so of course she won't join the meeting.

The sound of squawking sea gulls nearby caught her attention. She looked up, only to notice few of them are hanging at the lines, while more of them flying around on top of the clean clothes. Mirra didn't feel like something good is about to happen, and she is proven right when a poop suddenly fell on one of the strings, to close to one of the Heart's boxers.

Immediately, ice shot up and caught the birds within the perimeter. Those that not in the ice chunks flied away immediately, leaving their fallen friends eyes wided as they being frozen inside.

Mirra closed her book, rubbing her neck lightly before decided to collect all the clothes and fold it. Not that she has anything better to do anyways.

But since she didn't know which clothes belong to who's, she simply left all of them – after folding it – in the rec room. Of course, Law's clothes are too easy to differentiate that his hoodies and pants are put together, while the others are simply set in a line on the sofas, tables, and any empty spaces in the room.

Funnily, Mirra didn't found any of the jolly rogers embedded on the boxers, or socks. She's quite disappointed though because she truly believed with Law's sense of fashions, it bounded to reach his underwear as well.

She then made her way to the galley, before hesitantly knocking on the door to bring everyone's attention to her.

"Tra-san, I don't mean to interrupt your discussion, but it's about time I cook for dinner. Unless you want me to cook later than usual, then I'll be fine with it".

"Don't worry about that. We're finishing anyways. You can proceed with your job".

"Okay. Just so you know, I already collected and folded your clothes from the deck and put them in the rec room. It looks like it's going to rain soon anyways. The lines are all coiled together and in the rec room too. Also, I caught few seagulls just now, they probably dead already frozen in the ice chunks but I left them in the bathroom. Can any of you helped me to remove their feathers? We can have the meat as our food tomorrow".

"Why did you catch the birds?"

"They were pooping on the clothes". The crew sweat dropped before sighing, mumbling something like need to rewash them, but Mirra immediately assured them that none of the clothes has been hit by the shit.

They sighed in relief.

While her hand busied stirring the prepped teriyaki chicken, waiting for the pan to heat up, she heard Law asking his men about things that they're lacked off.

One of them requested for a proper cook, since they're bound to be eating pile of *_cough_* garbages again once Mirra left. And even if Mirra wanted to stay longer, their own cook could help around with the meals and make her less suffer to feed nineteen stomachs three times a day. At first, Mira was touched with their concern, but it was destroyed immediately when Hiro added in to the fact that with new cook there's no reason to keep her on the sub anymore and wasting their funds to cater her needs as well.

This of course triggered some arguments, mainly between Shachi, Penguin, Ray and Hiro. Another two of the crew's member agreed with Hiro's idea to kick her out, but for others that agreed to find an official cook, they just didn't want her to be burdened alone.

Of course, before things get head wired, Law had stopped the argument, and promised to start looking for a capable cook that willing to join the crew.

Then, they switched to discussing on finding a laundry maker, which eagerly agreed by Anko, but Law shut them all up with his signature glare. And five minutes are all needed for him to give a hearty lecture to Anko before the said male grumbled and sighed in defeat.

Definitely Anko tried to reason back that he's not the official laundry maker, which is a totally bad move because soon after, Law pointed him as one officially. The rest cheered as he slumped his face in a total defeat.

Finally, when Bepo requested for a helper to chart maps of all the island they have visited and soon to visit, everyone turned his head before shouting, "its your job to chart the map!". Bepo apologized badly, saying he couldn't draw since he is terrible in it, despite being the navigator.

Sometimes, he himself didn't understand what he'd drawn after looking at them again.

The meeting ended with Law refused to listen to anymore useless requests. Everyone left the galley to do their own things, but Law remained sit at his place. After all, this is one of his job. Watching the female cooking.

Not long after, dinner is done, and everyone swarmed in for a feast. It supposed to be a peaceful dinner, – if everyone put aside the loud and noisy chatter – but someone, just have the guts to complain about the food, truly testing Mirra's patience beyond the bar.

"This chicken is too sweet. How did you cook it?" Neil said.

"It's teriyaki chicken, of course it's gonna be sweet".

"But it's too sweet..."

"It's not. you're the only one complaining here, maybe you should check your taste receptor. I know a doctor that I can introduce you to. Here!", Mirra pointed to Law, "Tra-san is a doctor. Make an appointment with him".

"This food is the worse! I don't want to eat it! Make me something else!"

Mirra's chopstick snapped into two, and Bepo immediately interjected. "It's not nice to push someone's effort and ask them to do other things, Neil," he frowned.

"Well she is willing to cook more pancakes when captain refused to eat her sandwiches and cook new dishes when he rejected the umeboshi in his rice ball. Why can't she cook new meal for me?"

"It's because he is the captain and he was the one treated me last time. And in the agreement we reached, he never mentioned I need to follow the stomach of the crew. So shut up and eat!"

"Why are you being a sour-puss. Just cook me a new one!"

"You have no right to order me, brick face! If you don't want to eat, then you can skip the meal and pray that tomorrow's meal will be not sweet at all!"

" Enough! We are eating whatever she cooked as long as it harmless. and if any of you doesn't like the food, you may cook your own dinner". Law snapped and things got silence again.

That is, until a comment reached Mirra's ears and she snapped this time, taking her plate and glass of water to her room, eating by her own self.

"_The crew has been bickering ever since she came"_, is exactly what Takumi – the blonde who has sided with Hiro in kicking her out of the sub – said, and became the trigger to Mirra's withdrawal.

**_Back to the present_**.

Knocks on her door disturbed the female from her peaceful sleep. She stirred slightly, half-awake before calling "come in" to the person on the other side.

"Mirra-chan, are you okay?" Shachi's head popped in, together with Penguin's. Mirra opened her eyes slightly before rubbing them gently with her knuckles. She heard the men stuttered 'cute' and she smiled sheepishly at that.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Can we come in?" Penguin asked. He still had the pink hue on his cheek.

"Sure, anything you want to tell me?" she watched the men getting comfortable at the edge of the bed.

"Are you okay? I know Neil and Takumi were being harsh just now and we are sorry on their behalf," Shachi scratched his back head, not sure how to say.

"You don't have to come and apologise for them, you know? I don't mind what they think about me. I'm just a guest here, so I'm cool with that okay?"

Shachi and Penguin looked at each other before facing her again, "we want you to know that even though Hiro, Neil and Takumi are not really pleased with you being here, most of us welcomed your stay very well," Penguin had his eyebrows knitted together showing how bad he is feeling right now. Though, Mirra couldn't see his eyes due to the hat's brim.

"Mirra-chan, if anything please don't hesitate to tell us, okay? We like you here because you are fun and really entertaining. This sub needs more woman that can lighten up our sailors' days. Ahhhh~ how I wish captain will start recruiting woman." There are flowers blooming around Shachi, and they spread over to Penguin as he also started daydreaming.

"That's it! Why don't you join our crew, Mirra-chan?" Penguin's voice boomed in her room, startling her a bit as he leaned forward near to her face.

"I'm sorry I can't." Pity the boys. The blooming flowers suddenly withered replaced with a blanket of depression behind them.

"But why Mirra-chan? Why?" Shachi is overreacting with his fake tears, leading the female to sigh again for the night.

"It's a secret. A secret that makes a woman, a woman," she winked with her index finger in front of her lips, making a 'keep quite' gesture. Invisible arrows of hearts shot them immediately, making them stunned comically, and head-banged each other from the charm.

"Ar-are you two okey?"

_Man, flirting with them might not be a good thing. I shouldn't do that again... hopefully._

Grasping their hands, Mirra thanked the males for their worries and welcoming invitation. She truly meant it when she said they made her days more interesting and meaningful despite being a stranger. She enjoyed making friends with them all, and because of that fact she couldn't bring to her lips that she is actually on a mission, that definitely will rip off their happiness once she put it into action.

It solemn her much, but she acted like it's nothing with her cheerful smile.

Giggling lightly, Mirra excused herself as she felt sleepy and wanted to rest for the night. They both nodded before Shachi picked up the plate and the glass of her dinner from the nightstand, both wishing her a goodnight as they left the room. Believing the two finally left, Mirra stripped of her clothes, changing into a sleeping pant and wore a black with red strips sports bra, before falling to sleep again.


	6. Getting kidnapped is a norm - really?

**Vi-violence:** hahaha I didnt know you watch Detective Conan as well...well Mirra likes that phrase so she'll be using it regularly now. but I assure you she doesnt look like Vermouth at all

-

**6\. Getting kidnapped is a norm** **\- _really??_****_!_**

There are three things that kept lulling Mirra back to her sleep. The melody of the chirping birds, the sound of waves hitting the shore and the gentle breeze that carried the smell of the ocean. It's too peaceful that the thought of getting up will never cross her mind.

Not even when her bladder is full.

But the sun probably has a grudge against her. The sun ray has been directed to her face for far too long, waking up the female due the stinging heat on her cheek. She rolled to her side, reaching out for her pillow to cover her face, only for her to fall, hard to the ground.

It took her a second to immediately shot up – the stinging pain of her palm played a role – to realize she's not in her room in the sub. She is somewhere in a forest, where she has fell asleep on a tree after an eventful night last night.

The throbbing palm brought her attention to it as she recalled her memories. Sighing in defeat, she slumped her back against the tree, reminiscing on the fate that has befell on her.

_Once again... The Hearts pirates got kidnapped… or probably entirely got murdered last night_.

**_Flashback to 8 hours before she woke up…._**

A sudden loud bang jolted Mirra awake, as she immediately sensed the tense in the air with running footsteps along the hall. Throwing away her blanket, she grabbed her sword and ran to the deck bare footed.

The first thing she noticed was how chaos the deck was with Law's crew fighting pirates that came out of nowhere in the middle of the night. Almost everyone stepped into the fight in their sleeping clothes – sweatpants, shorts, singlets – bare footed as well. For some like Shachi, Hiro and Ray, they were only in their white sweatpants with jolly roger embedded on the upper left thighs, showing their abs and muscles under the glory of the starry night sky. Some like Penguin and Niel had a black singlet with either a sweatpant or shorts.

Law himself was wearing nothing other than his leopard printed pants, with the pants in black and the pattern in white. His midnight hair dishevelled and the grunt on his face showed his displeasure for his one of the rare night-sleep being disturbed.

Even in the dark Mirra could make a silhouette of an island nearby, raising her a question since no one ever informed anything about getting near to an island.

_Note to self: spacing out when enemies within the territory was never a good idea_, and she was glad that even after just waking up from her slumber, her senses worked perfectly, knocking her back to reality when she felt a danger from behind. She turned, twirled and cut an arrow into two. She sharpened her eyes, pinpointing the location of the culprit.

Licking his lips, the shooter eyed her up and down, grinning wickedly as he took in Mirra's preference on her night cloth. "I didn't know there's a pretty babe in this male-pirates crew."

Ignoring his comment, Mirra prepared herself as more arrows were shot. She ran around the deck, propelled herself in the air before cut the shooter across his chest. Pivoting her legs, she dashed around cutting few more of the enemies, not giving them a slightest chance to retreat. Their screams and agony became the music for the night.

It was getting clear that the Hearts were winning as more and more of the enemies were defeated. But the table turned when they used sleeping bombs that released sleeping gas causing one by one of the Hearts fell unconscious.

Supposed Mirra could use her hail breeze to push away all the smoke, but perhaps her mind's gear was still slow after abruptly being woken up, causing her to not think of the tactic at all, and instead, she withdrew herself back to the sub for safety. She knew full well if everyone getting caught, then there will be no one else left to save them, including herself. Unlucky for her, someone saw her retreating, so he gave her a chase.

"Shit, I can't take it any longer. I'm sleepy," she cursed to herself while frantically listening to the approaching footsteps, pressing herself even more into her hiding place.

"Come out pretty girl. I bet my captain gonna be happy to see you~" the guy started to kick any doors, checking if she was hiding behind it.

"Captain sure loves woman. Especially the young and still fresh one. You gonna be treated very well, my dear~ on HIS BED~"

Mirra hated that kind of laugh. It was a perverted laugh, a disgusting one for sure and she couldn't bring her mind to the thought of getting rape.

_If he's not giving up looking for me, the there is only one thing left to do._

Taking a deep breath, Mirra stabbed her palm with her sword. The sudden pain ran through her spine, jolting her body awake as she sprung out and ran to the deck.

Swiftly maneuvering around the enemies and sleeping Hearts, Mirra leaped onto the railing and jumped into the air as iced-plates started to form under her feet. She continued running, ignoring the enemies' shouts and gun shots as she made her way to the island that she first saw.

She managed to land on the seashore without any of the bullets reaching her. She sprinted to the forest, getting a bit deeper inside before she settled on one of the trees, hidden enough to not being noticed if they started to look for her, and fell asleep immediately as the sleeping gas started to take over the pain.

The last thing she remembered was once again, she felt like being hunted and every corner had eyes, waiting for her to be defenceless before they leap out and eat her.

**_Back to the present..._**

Mirra sighed as she watched her injured palm, some blood still oozing from it and she started to wonder why she didn't run out of it by now. But she dismissed her thought, silently thanking the Heaven above for yet to invite her there. Or probably to Hell with the amount of killing she had done before.

She unattached the green sash that's hooked to the hilt of her sword and wrapped it around her wound. Freezing the injuries could be much easier but she didn't want her pain receptor to – she didn't know – not functioning?? Because the coldness of the ice will numb the pain, and numbing the pain is not a good thing because without pain, she won't know if her hand is dead or still alive, and without pain she can't feel the impending danger, and she will force her injured hand to be used instead, which ran the possibility of worsening the injuries even more.

Enough with herself babbling, she stood up and made her way back to the submarine, where she would start gathering information and plan for her escape.

–

It didn't take her too long to reach the sub docked at the seashore. And since being on a tree is safer than hiding behind it, she climbed – she didn't know what kind of tree is that but she's glad it is there, otherwise she would have to climb a coconut or palm tree – and pulled a branch of leaves to cover her silhoutte. She saw intruders walking in and out of the sub, taking with them whatever valuable things that they found.

She is pretty sure all of the Hearts have been caught and running to the sub is meaningless because it will only result in her catch.

_All of the Hearts… wait a minute…. How did we end up here anyways? No one ever mention anything about getting near to an island. And we were underwater, those pirates shouldn't be able to detect us…._

She took a cursory glance at the pirates.

_Someone is actually behind this. Probably, the helmsman… and the helmsman for last night was……_ she squinted her eyes, finally getting her answer.

She sighed.

Since this is inhabitant island, there's no boat for her to steal, which meant she needed the sub to escape. She had seen all the buttons and switches in the control room and steering the sub is a big no, since she knew nothing of it. This leave her with the last choice: kill those intruders, save the Hearts and escape together.

Her thought is cut short when she saw a group of the pirates emerged from the forest and made way to the sub. She watched them talking, and shortly after, they changed shift as the newly arrived pirates stayed and those that have been on duty left the scene.

Tailing the pirates from trees to trees – well she has enough practice by jumping from trees to trees like a ninja, thanks to her brothers that love to play that games when they were kids – she kept them within an eye distance.

Too far for them to notice, yet close enough for her to launch a sneak attack.

–

"Did you find the woman?"

"No captain. We have been searching all the forest but she's no where to be found".

"Hmmmm call off the search. She will get to us anyway. We have what she needs, she can't leave without them behabehabehabeha!!!!"

–

Right in front of her stood tall a huge pirate ship, three times bigger than the submarine in its glory. It is a two-mast with a fully square-rigged foremast and three sails on the main mast. A statue of bronze in the shape of a naked mermaid hung at the front of the ship, and lots of skeletons are tied to the railings.

Mirra fixed the pants that she's wearing – she stole them – from sliding down. It wasn't that hard. All she did was waiting for a small group of the pirates to enter the forest. She followed them and when she think it is far enough, she launched a sneak attack.

The first pirate was down with her sword swiftly punctured through his heart. The second received a clean horizontal cut that separated his neck from his head and the third was frozen in ice chunk. All in all, it was a clean kill with not much of blood dirtying her. She then proceeded to steal some clothes, putting them on in whatever ways that could make their crew believed she was part of them, despite her short height and the baggy clothes.

But the biggest problem is the boots. They're way too big for her small feet. Even though she tried tying the laces as tied as possible, she still felt walking like a penguin. But it didn't matter now.

She approached the ship slowly, and cautiously. But too bad, two of the pirates noticed and immediately made their way to her.

"Yo, how it's going over there? Find anything special? Any secret weapons? How about the chick? I can't believe she ran from us when she got nowhere to go, hahahahaha", he slung his arm on Mirra's shoulder.

"Are you getting shorter? Or is the sake doing the talk 'cuz I don't remember having this short of crew members wahahahahaha", the other slurred, swinging his sake left and right. Totally intoxicated.

Mirra simply brushed them off and walked away, ignoring their comments.

"Rude", they said before laughing hysterically, over drunk.

Reaching the deck, Mirra walked passed those that are lazing around. Their eyes trailed each step of hers in suspicious, but none bothered to question.

She entered the first door that she reached, which is the kitchen and the dining room, located on the first floor near the stern of the ship. There's a stair leading to the second level, a room above the kitchen but it didn't intrigue Mirra much to check there. Most hostages will be kept at the lowermost deck, so her only focus is there.

Taking the second stair which is next to the first, she descended to the upper lower deck, which mainly consisted of nothing other than arrays of cannons at the both side of the ship. Cannon balls are arranged neatly next to each cannon, and if she squinted her eyes a bit more, she will see a door's room, at the other end of the ship with 'Captain Room' written on a signboard nailed to it. She continued descended to the middle lower deck.

The first thing she noticed is hammocks, suspended from the ceiling in a double deck fashioned. Second is pirates sleeping on the hammocks – _sheeesshhh it's middle in the afternoon and lots of you are sleeping? Then again it's no surprise since with this huge ship, the crew might have over 50 members _–, third is large lockers at the back, forth is scattered clothes and pants on the floor and everywhere, and the fifth is the foul smell, which most likely because those pirates kept their dirty laundry everywhere.

She cringed in disgust. She didn't know if the Heart pirates act this way as well, but she hoped they didn't. After all, their captain is pretty strict when it comes to hygiene.

The next stair leading to the lowermost deck located at the centre of the middle lower deck, in between the crew's quarter and the capstan. Manuevering around the sleeping pirates, she almost reached the stair when her ears caught descending footstep from the upper lower deck.

"Oii. Captain wants some of you go searching for food". The ruff voice shouted.

"You!" he pointed his finger to Mirra, "get going with the rest to hunt".

Mirra mumbled something incoherent, but she followed suit to not raise any suspicious. She is halfway to the upper deck when she slowly turned again, but a hand grabbed her on the shoulder asking her where's she going. She muttered "toilet" – in her fake rough voice – only to receive "piss in the sea" as a reply.

Leaving with no choice, she once again went back to the forest.

–

Shachi is pretty sure he had broken couple of ribs, bled his lips for the whole night and probably had his right cheek swollen pretty bad right now.

Every single movement that he made led to pain. And it is totally not helping with his arms at his back and his body is chained with a thick, rusty metal chain. With many opening wounds he received from last night's torture, he didn't ignore the fact that Clostridium tetani from the rust are probably in his bloodstream right now. And if he didn't get a shot, he could get Tetanus and died.

And he's pretty sure all the crewmates facing the same problem, since they are in no better shape than him. Law probably won't be happy knowing nineteen needles and 9.5 ml of tetanus vaccine will be forsake and this is yet to include other medicines and bandages for each of them. And the vaccine alone is pricy enough that he doubted there'll be enough cash left for them to restock supplies at the next island.

"Shachi, don't force yourself. You're making it worse", Xan (the only crewmate that preferred to isolate himself from the rest) sounded not so far. He has been watching Shachi trying to release himself for sometimes now. No progress has been made and if anything, it only injured the said male even more.

"We can't give up. Some of us is not here. They must be somewhere. We need to save them", Shachi coughed in pain.

"We're screwed. We can't even free ourselves", Rain sighed.

"Heart pirates don't die easily", Xan shuffled in his feet.

"We're are still human, Xan. The only persons with superpowers are captain, Anko and Mirra-chan. I don't think any of us have better survival rate than them".

"Speaking of Mirra-chan, where is she? I hope she didn't get caught and is on her way to save us".

"Why would she save us again? She's not part of the crew".

"You know why I hate that woman?" Hiro's voice resonated in the dark room.

"Not now, Hiro..." Anko sighed.

"Because she is a woman. In this situation, when everyone gets caught, that woman will receive a special treat, and by special treat means nightmares to every woman. We don't need woman in our crew. Because we don't need someone with a mental breakdown after getting rape, because it'll be in our way and take all our time just to bring her back to her feet!"

"Shut up Hiro! This is not the time!"

"Do you ever think that she could be the one causing this to us?!! We keep getting kidna – "

"Guys! I was meant to ask! Why there's only seven of us here?"

"That is why I have been trying to free myself. We don't know the situation of our other friends! And you guys think bickering about Mirra-chan is the most appropriate things to do in this situation! Why don't any of you haul your ass and break that damn door with your head!! At least we get to somewhere!!!"

For the first time of the day, the six Hearts thought there is finally limits to Shachi's cheerful and positive attitude, for it is the first time he ever snarled in pure anger at them.

–

Mirra finally back to sneaking in the ship again. She had ditched the hunting group, brought back whatever fruits that she found on her way back – edible or not, she didn't care –, dumped them to the drunken-on-duty pirates, and swiftly hided behind the ship when the captain walked down the plank. He looked like a promising pirate, with scars on his face and a peg leg, but when he slipped and rolled down like a hippo and face-fell onto the sand, Mirra knew he worth nothing.

But that didn't cross out the guy from having 15 million belli on his head.

"Even Surgeon of Death can't stand against the sleeping gas. What a brat, thinking he can take on everyone. I'll get revenge with his life behabehabeha".

_Captain Barith, the Mud Leg Splinter. You're 25 million shorts from Tra-san's. I guess you need sleeping gas if that's the case, _Mirra snorted before immediately disappeared to the deck.

In her rush, she jumped down to the lowermost deck, only to bump into one of them. A feminine squeal left her mouth and immediately she covered it, but the widen eyes of the pirate told that she'd blew off her cover. Pushing her hand forwards and covering his mouth, she slithered his neck with a knife, leaving him gurgling in silence before dropped dead.

With two doors at each end, she opened the first which turned out to be a storage keeping extra lumbers and rope. The other door, meanwhile, held the key to her escape.

–

"Anko, can't you use your power to free us?"

"I can't. I have nothing in my dimension that I could pull and free us. After all I got sea stone chained to me".

"Your power is useless".

"Hmph... and this power is the one that helped you guys from carrying too much of stuff when shopping".

"You know I kinda miss my room in the sub right now. Far from noises. Far from your stupidity fights. Far from everything..." Xan mumbled in his low breath, resulting him to receive "_fuck off_" and "_useless_" from his friends.

"Xan, I missed the sub as well. But right now, I think what intrigued me more is why the fuck does V still sleeping? Wake up you idiot how long more you plan to fall unconscious", Anko kicked V's on the shoulder, making the male groaned in pain.

"I'm dead, idiot", he replied.

"Dead man doesn't talk", Anko snorted.

In the moment of despair, they heard the sound of rattling doorknob, before dim light peered in, followed by a silhouette of a short person in baggy attire. Gasp could be heard as the footsteps rushed to their side.

Well, no. To Shachi's side.

"Shachi, hey, are you okay?" she took a glance at the surrounding. "What happened here?"

"Mirra-chan, where's captain?"

"I don't know. I was all alone since last night. Hold on. I'll help you – " Mirra suddenly snapped her head to the door when someone opened it wider and stepped in.

"Yo. Need a hand?" Kyle – one of the Hearts – grinned. Everyone sighed in relief. Along with him is Beck, whom silently closed the door back.

"You guys are safe!", said Anko in relief.

"Yeah... we were lucky to not get caught". Kyle's eyes trailed to the female, smiling genuinely.

Shachi noticed something is wrong. The female has been quite next to him. Her eyebrows furrowed, glares sharpened, body slightly tensed and she's biting her lower lip, a habit of hers when she did any of this three things: deep thinking, analysing or recalling something.

Kyle made a step forward. "Beck, we need to help them. They are clearly – "

"Not a single step forward, boys. Tell me, where did you come from?" but he was stopped with Mirra's order.

"What do you mean where did we come from?" Beck asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. Why aren't you guys tied up like them?"

"We manage to escape the pirates last night. We hide in this island before we decide to help you guys". Kyle said while moving forward. Mirra shifted her body to face them fully, slowly retreating her arm that has been supporting Shachi's back.

"That outfit. Where did you get them?" she looked pointedly.

"Mi-Mirra... what are – "

"Your friends here are in nothing than their sleeping attire, yet you two dressed much like those pirates outside. Doesn't seem like coincidence much", she pointed out.

"You are wearing their clothes as well," Beck retorted.

"I stole them. But how 'bout you guys?"

Putting his hand in his pocket, "we stole them as well," Beck replied.

"How?"

Kyle started to ask, "what's the point of this? Aren't we going to save them? Let's skip this – "

"I stole this cloth by killing those losers. How about you guys?" now Mirra fully repositioned herself by putting one foot and one knee on the floor.

"We killed them as well, that's how we get the clothes," Beck said as if he's saying something oblivious.

"No, you didn't, because that cloth originally belongs to you. They fit very well on you. And I could see your name at the sleeve of your shirt. It's too coincidence to steal from someone with the same name as you".

Seeing how the two males stood in silence, Mirra continued running her theories.

"Last time I remember, you were wearing black boots fighting along our side". She glanced to his legs. "You don't happen to find it necessary to change the boots if you simply killing and stealing their clothes, right? And just now while I was spying the sub, I was pretty sure I saw someone wearing identical clothes like Beck, watching over the sub. Though I can't confirm the person's identity since his back was all I see".

Mirra's hand went to the hilt of her sword and she gave her most sinister smile. "But that guy was laughing, hitting each other playfully like he's part of them from the very beginning. I wonder why..."

Smirking, "heh, aren't you a clever one? And here I thought we played it off very well," Beck said.

"It was this island that make me think something is off. As far as I remember, no one ever mentioned reaching an island. And in fact, wasn't Locky the helmsman last night? Seeing he's not here rose suspicious, especially when it is much easier to change the course of the sub when Bepo and everyone else falls asleep. I can go on with my theories, but do I need to say more?"

"Smart, Mirra. You impressed me. So, should we go somewhere else than here?" Kyle taunted her. His hand rested on the gun at his hips.

"You two... did this?" Shachi voiced, too low to be heard.

"Yes, we are the Gumbo Pirates, served under the one and the only Captain Barith."

Groaned can be heard from the rest of the Heart Pirates. Some didn't believe this while some are cursing at them for deceiving and being deceived.

"For how long? How long have you guys fake it?" Hiro forced himself to his knee, staring daggers before coughing out a fit of blood.

"From the very beginning."

"Why?!!"

"Captain Barith had some grudge against Trafalgar, after he humiliated him sometimes ago. He planned to kill him now as a revenge." Beck answered.

"And of course, there're more reasons to that but why do we need to tell you guys?" Kyle cut in.

"You traitor! Where are captain, Penguin and the others?!!" Shachi stood, but he stopped when he felt something small, long, solid and cold-like an object being put on his palm. He turned to the female, slightly confused with her gift.

"Your captain is somewhere in a cave, getting a different type of torture," Beck scratched his head, before turned to face Shachi and Mirra again.

"Mirra, I would like to ask you to step back and leave the crew. You are coming with us to meet Captain Barith."

"And if you disagree, I'll blow off one of their heads." Kyle had a gun pointed to the Hearts and the devilish grin expressed by him didn't promised he won't do it if Mirra refuse.

"Maybe all of them". Kyle enforced a bigger threat.

"What business do I have with your captain?"

"Oh, you will know…."

–

Shaking body, laboured breathing, fast heart beats and dried lips – Law didn't think any of it as a good sign. He tried to refocus his mind, but the thumping in his head getting louder and irritating.

He is dizzy. Very.

Penguin, who is leaning against his back, shuffled, fixing his position as he craned his neck slightly to behind. Worry etched on his face, only to be covered by his stupid hat.

"Captain, are you okay? Your body is hot," he is referring to the heat that sipped through his cloth.

"It's nothing. Probably fever", he said in shaken voice. _Odd… I can't sweat no matter how hot my body is. What did they feed me?_

"You sure? Doesn't sound good to me".

"How's Bepo?" Law ignored the question.

Both males craned their neck to the polar bear, not far from them, but has been out of function for sometimes now.

"Still sleeping", Penguin sighed.

Law didn't like this situation at all.

He has been brought to this cave – hands handcuffed – along with whole-body chained Penguin and Bepo – like a tortilla wrap – while they were sleeping last night. Those pirates woke him up by throwing a bucket of cold water, interrogated him, beat him, then force him to swallow something before harshly knocked him out again. Which still didn't pose as a big problem if the aforementioned handcuff wasn't made of sea stone.

The last time he fell victim to this situation, Mirra was there to burst him out with her picking skill, but he couldn't count on that again at this moment. With everyone on the deck knocked out due to the sleeping gas, he didn't rule out the possibility of the female to be in the same boat as them.

_Fuck!_

As the captain and the doctor of the crew, it is his duty to keep everyone safe, and he is doing a poor job at the moment.

"How are you holding up, Penguin-ya"? Law had watched the injuries on both Bepo and Penguin, and believed they received a good amount of beating as well. He didn't have to ask.

"Pretty good actually. I don't feel the pain from the beating anymore".

"Careful. Losing sense of pain could mean that body parts died".

"It's so charming how you can say that in a casual tone, captain".

The coughing fit came and attacked again, this time slightly louder and more painful. Law crunched forward bringing his knees to his chest. The pain is so intense. He felt like his body is on fire.

And slowly dozing off, he slipped off his sitting position and dropped unconscious on the cold floor.

The last thing he heard was Penguin calling for his name, not his tittle.

–

Shachi released his breath that he didn't know he has been holding.

He peeked over the capstan, watching the pirates changed direction at the last minute. It was a close call. Had they decided to head straight, he'll be spotted, chaos will erupt, and he'll be thrown to the room again, making Mirra's effort – she made him a key to his chain's lock with her ice power – to get wasted.

He didn't believed the female was able to create a chance to escape, when he himself started to lose hopes on it.

He wondered how she managed to charm her ways in dire situations.

Shachi then heard a loud thump at the deck above him, followed by roar of laughs. He promptly ignored it, thinking the pirates probably celebrating something at the deck.

_Yes... probably celebrating the captured of Mirra-chan. Who knows what could possibly she's facing right now._

Shachi quickly erased the thought and focused back on his task.

The room he's currently in, called 'lab' judging from the signboard hang above the door, has nothing what he's looking for – the keys to all his friends' locks. If anything, the only thing he spotted is a very big metal table at the right corner of the room, where beakers and test tubes and bunsen burner and flasks and pipets and tongs and many more are set in array and arranged manner. Some are filled with liquids in various colours while some are left empty clean, ready to be used at any time.

The room reminded him to his captain's office, where sets of petri dishes and cell culture flasks are placed on a metal cupboard, with different bacteria and vero cells cultured inside. The only difference is captain's office is way cleaner than this lab.

Leaving the room, he took the stair to the upper lower deck to continue his search.

–

Clione couldn't bring to believe what he had just heard ten minutes ago. He refused to believe it, but the more he denied it, the more the memories replayed in his head.

Clione is also the traitor that has been working with others to enact their great plan of capturing Trafalgar Law. He did that because of his loyalty to Captain Barith, who had saved him from the pirates that raid his hometown and killed everyone. He worshipped his saviour, and he promised to his blood that he will always follow him, and forever be his subordinate. Afterall, if it was not for him, he could have been dead in the fire and explosion that took the life of everyone back at his hometown.

Yes... he is totally in debt to his captain. But everything changed when he stumbled to his friends, who were too drunk to realize he was there leaning against the ship, listening to their conversation. That day, Clione found out, the mastermind behind the raid, arsonist and killer of his family, friends and neighbours was actually his captain and the crew.

He had misjudged them. And to think that he'd worked under and with the people that took his everything... It disgusted him to the core of his heart. He didn't want to serve under this crew anymore. He wanted a revenge. But his strength alone is impossible.

There is one way though. By relying to the strength of the Heart pirates, his temporary friends that has treated him as part of their family.

And immediately, Clione disappeared to the lowermost deck with new determination.

–

Peering over the small window on the door of the kitchen, Shachi watched the scene played right in front of his eyes, fully anguish in anger. The commotion at the upper deck was too loud, that it attracted the male to peek over.

Hate and anger immediately rose when he saw the pirates circling their captain, who held a leash tied to a metal collar that is chaining Mirra's neck, with her down on all fours like a pet. Laughs and provocative words are thrown, forcing her to lick their captain's shoes. Shachi couldn't stand the humiliation, especially not when the captain slapped her rear, loud enough for his ear to catch the sound very clearly when she had refused to do so.

Shachi's grip tightened, causing his palms to turn white as he watched Mirra's face burnt in embarrassment from the sexual harassment while the crew laugh in excitement.

"Release my friends! Where did you keep the key to their locks?" Shachi heard the female shouted.

One of the pirates immediately slapped her face, "don't be rude to captain", as he brought her face back to his. He pulled her collar, attempted to kiss her but she spat immediately, resulting in her receiving another hard slap on the face. Mirra flinched a bit before head butt the pirate's head, but another guy slammed her head down to the deck.

Captain Barith walked to her. "It's not like you can do anything even if you know where the keys are, babe," and lifted her chin.

"Where. Are. The. Keys." She said in disgust when the captain licked the tricking blood from her forehead.

"Heh, a persistent one. They're in my room. What you gonna do now, pretty babe? Behabehabeha!"

"I swear... I swear I'll find the keys and release them all! Do you hear me??!! I'LL RANSACK YOUR ROOM AND FIND THE KEYS TO RELEASE THEM ALL!"

"Behabehabeha! I would love to see you do that!"

Hearing that, Shachi immediately headed to the captain's room. He'd caught Mirra's intention. Mirra is not an idiot. She wouldn't shout out loud her plan to the enemies. She did that so her voice will reach Shachi, so he knows where he should look for the keys instead of searching blindly like a lost puppy.

Shachi didn't want to delay even a minute. He didn't want to gamble Mirra's safety.

With strong force, he opened the captain's room door, ransacked and turned the whole room upside down before spotting the keys on his bed stand and rushed back to his friends.

–

**_In a cave where Penguin, Bepo and Law are..._**

"Law, can you hear me?!! Wake up, you have been cringing in pain! Law!!!" Penguin shouted.

"Bepo, this is bad. Law is not responding to me!" he turned to Bepo, who is practically crying his eyes out right now, with snorts running out of his snub.

"Whh...what should we do? Captain doesn't look good. We need to get help," Bepo cried again.

"I know Bepo. But we can't do anything if we can't get this chain unlock! Think of something!"

"Think of what??!"

"Anything you idiot! Think how to get out of this chain. And think fast!" with Law being unresponsive and Bepo's cries getting louder, it just a matter of time before he also goes crazy.

"Why I have to do the thinking??! You must figure out as well!"

"I am you idiot! But I just couldn't find any!"

"I can't find ways to get out as well! So, stop forcing me to think!" Now Bepo had scooted even closer and shoved his face all the way to Penguin's face.

"Well if you can stop crying then maybe I'll think that you actually do some thinking", Penguin barked back.

And the situation didn't get any better as they both continued barking at each other.

–

Shouts and screams can be heard as the Heart Pirates ambushed Gumbo Pirates on the deck. The Heart pirates had stolen whatever weapons they are comfortable with – courtesy to Clione whom had accidentally bumped into Shachi in his haste to his friends – to assist them in the fights.

Mirra sighed in relief as she watched her friends are doing fine and successfully escaped from the chains. Though, their battered conditions worried her a bit in case they suddenly went sloppy and get attacked. But her thought is cut short as Barith pulled the leash to her neck, promptly forcing her to stand up.

That stupid sea stone made Mirra on his mercy. And she really wondered how the hell pirates could get their hands on the stone.

"Stop right there! Make any movement and I'll throw her to the sea!" Barith threatened after dragging her close to the railing. Worries washed over the Hearts as they stopped fighting hesitantly.

"No, don't! Don't worry about me! just... fight them all! Kick their ass! Do what you pirate always do!"

"You've got some guts girl. Do you wanna die that badly?"

"What? You don't?? So pussy!!!" she snarled.

That earned a tick on his forehead. "Then die!!" Barith's mud circled her torso. He then swung her over his head, acted like a cowboy preparing to throw a lasso to somewhere. In an instant, she regretted ever said so because she felt like vomiting.

"Heart Pirates! Let see how far your girl can fly! Behabehabehabeha!"

"Let go of her!"

"I'm gonna kill you if you hurt Mirra-chan!"

Barith is so ready to throw her to the open sea, when suddenly Clione appeared to his side and cut the mud with a 'splosh' sound with his sword, and caught Mirra immediately before she could head bang her head to the deck.

"What are you thinking you are doing, Clione?" Barith shouted in anger.

"Things that I should've done since long time ago. Betraying you!"

"You are a traitor now?!"

"Don't act saint when you yourself is the mastermind behind the destruction of my hometown, you stupid two toothless leg-peg third rate pirate!"

"RRRRRAAAAAAA KILL HIM!!!! Whoever kill him I award with anything!!! And kill every single of Heart pirates here!"

Barith's order fuelled motivation to his subordinates, as they started to fight again. Meanwhile, Barith is chasing Clione to get his hands back on the female, and Clione is doing his best to run while carrying the female in bridal style.

Things didn't look good since Clione is not fit enough to run with a hundred and eight pounds of human in his hands. And Mirra certainly not appreciating the unstable hold on her.

"Mirra-chan, you're heavy".

"I can throw up on you. I might lose some pounds and it could help", she said in a muffled voice as her face pressed to Clione's clothed chest.

"Please don't".

Eventually, Clione slipped on Barith's mud and accidentally dropped her. The mud immediately rushed forwards, aiming to catch the female but once again, she is saved by Ray who scooped her up at the last minute and ran to the opposite direction.

"Hold on tight, there's enemies in front of us," Ray whispered, shifting one arm to be under her knees and another to hold his knife in front of her in protective manner.

"Do your thing. I'll be fine," she mumbled, hands coiled around his neck and face stuffed to his bare chest (he only wore his jogger pants last night, remember?).

Ray didn't need to be told twice. He lunged forward with a knife aimed to the attackers' necks, cutting them swiftly resulting in fountain of blood spraying around.

All the swirling, and bumping, and falling, and scooping – also the smell of blood – caused the female's stomach to lurch, but she couldn't tell Ray to stop. Because it will only result in their death. But she could warn him, because warning is important when you're about to do something brazen.

"Ray, I'm so sorry but I need to vomit".

"Hold it a bit Mirra. I'll put you down soon". In contradict to what he said, he just had to jump to the ship mast's net, hanging at the net in swaying motions. That only worsen her nausea.

She's still in a bridal style in the hands of that hot guy.

"I'm sorry, I can't". When the wave of nausea came, instead of holding it, she let it flow, _flow_, like the majestic Niagara Falls, completed with hideous gurgling sound and maybe with two or three chunks of last night's chicken teriyaki.

Of course, a second before that happened, Mirra turned her head away from Ray's chest to prepare for what's coming, but there's so little flexibility her neck could crane. So it resulted with her vomited to her own body – luckily she wore that thick coat she stole before – but it isn't lucky much as the vomit pooled on her chest and some splashed to Ray's bare chest during the disaster.

She sniffled, "words can't describe how embarrassing I am. Sorry Ray".

Silence greeted her and Mirra couldn't see his eyes despite her looking up from his chin. But she noticed the tense on his shoulder blades.

"There goes my dinner last night", she mumbled lightly.

"Let's get ourselves clean." Ray finally said after a painful minute of silence.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"I'm going to jump into the sea, so hold your breath as long as you could". He swung, and with a strength of no ordinary man could muster, he jumped from the net to the waiting sea below.

"W-wait Ray I never hold my breath under water, I can't – " the water splashed as both started to sink.

Ray swam to the bottom of the ship with the female still in his hands. He stayed hidden as bullets from riffles and guns rained at their previous place. The Gumbo pirates probably tried to shoot them to death at the moment.

Ray repeated the action of surfacing from the water (to breath), dived back under the ship (to hide), and resurfaced again (to breath) for multiple times, until his friends called them as they'd done dealing with the Gumbo pirates.

Coughing out the salty water at the shore, Mirra helped herself to regain back her normal breathing. She wanted to throw dagger looks but knowing that Ray had probably done that as a revenge to her vomiting on him, she'd had to keep the look to herself.

The metal collar on her neck dropped with a soft thud on the sand as Clione unlocked it. He smiled lightly – though guiltily, – before handing her sword. Mirra didn't forget to thank him.

"There's quite a smaller number of Gumbo pirates here. Where are the rest?" Ray noticed the number had decreased, and Barith is nowhere to be seen.

"They run to the forest for no reason", Hiro walked casually before grabbing Clione by his collar.

"Tell me. How many of you guys into this plan?"

"Nine. Apart from seven of you that got chained in the room, they are all Gumbo pirates, except your captain, Penguin and Bepo." The answer only fueled Hiro more as he pulled Clione closer to his face, throwing lots of threatening words to the poor male.

Next to them, Mirra wiggled her toes after tossing the stolen boot to somewhere. The right side of the boots went missing when she fell unconscious in the sea, and she didn't see the logic in wearing only the left side. So, she decided to go bare feet. "I don't see Shachi, where is he?"

"I think I see him running to the forest", Rain interrupted.

"Why though?"

"Probably to free the other three. They're chained inside a cave in the forest," Clione fed them with information.

"You asshole should have told us earlier!" Hiro dumped Clione on the sand harshly.

"Does he know the way?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no".

"He's alone there, and a bunch of weaklings just retreated to the forest. Doesn't sound good". Anko and Xan walked to them. Not far, V still screaming profanities while having his revenge on the limpy pirates because they bruised his handsome face – that's what he always claims, and everyone didn't give a damn about it.

"I'll go search him," Ray offered.

Mirra immediately stood up, taking off the offensive stolen cloth from her skin. She sighed in relief when the wet clothes no longer weighing her down, especially with the sea water soaking the material, she couldn't muster her power at all. "I'll come with you," she resorted to her previous sleeping attire – the sports bra and the sleeping pant – , earning a questioning look from the rest.

"What?" she quirked her eyebrow.

"You gonna run around the forest with only that. Where poisoning plants could scratch you and kill you?" Anko said, amused, though he's being not decency at all when checking the female up and down.

"Ray is no different", she pointed to the half-naked man next to her.

"Good luck then. Hope you don't touch poison ivy," Anko wished half-heartedly. At the background, they could hear V whistled and mumbled '_nice figure_'.

They all watched the two disappeared into the forest – of course after Clione pointed where the cave is – before turning to each other again.

"What do we do now?"

"I regret telling you guys now, but Gumbo pirates separated into two direction when they run just now," Clione started talking. "One of the groups head that way", – his finger pointed to the direction where Mirra and Ray just disappeared – "and the other one is that way" – the same finger pointed to another direction – "where the submarine is".

"Damn you Clione, you will get a pack of punch from us after this!" Anko, V and Hiro immediately sprinted to the said direction.

"You take care those bastards over there, we handled these leftovers!" Rain shouted when he saw a sudden troop of Gumbo pirates came out from the deck. In shoulders they carried bazookas and started firing. Xan immediately positioned himself to fight those shameful pirates that have been hiding in the ship and to jump on them only when their numbers have been reduced.


	7. To abandon the old mission

A/N:

_Hi, my lovely sweet readers... before you start reading, I have to apologize first because this chapter is a short one. Geez I was a bit busy last week but I cant rest well knowing I owe a new chapter. But posting them while they are quite short doesn't sit well with me too.So I promised that I will update another chapter by this weekend.On another note, I just graduated last Saturday!! Yippeee!! Oh god, the feeling when you put the gown and the mortarboard and the scroll... hahaha sorry for rambling...Anyways, enjoy your reading~~_

_**Vi-violence**: to be honest, I didn't plan the number of Hearts properly when I began writing, and I ended up with 19 Hearts immediately. Then I realized I don't know how to describe most of them yet, and so an idea popped up, which is to eliminate them. And so, here we are~ hehehe_

-

**_7\. To_****_ abandon the old mission_**

Shachi ran. Ran like a madman, passing and stepping the plants and grasses like nothing. Like the mud and soil sticking to his bare feet is nothing than an offending dirt. Like the scraps he got from pointy twigs are just some additional scratches to his already injured body. The pain that his body felt from the beating he received since yesterday was pulsating and aching even more as he put more strain to each step. But he didn't care of those mundane things. What he cared is the condition of his captain. And his other two friends.

Shachi stopped in his track, panting heavily as glanced around looking for at least, a silhouette of the cave that he is searching currently.

_Where is it? I swear the cave should be somewhere here, judging from the map is_. He turned the map – he stole it from the Gumbo pirates – upside down. And turned it upside down again knowing he got the bearing right in the first place. His clench on the tiny dirty brown paper tightened as his anxious increased.

Suddenly, a sense of danger alerted him as he ducked down, an instinct that he'd grown up with from all those previous fighting experiences. He watched a long, sharped jagged spear embedded into a tree right in front of him.

He turned behind, scowling at whoever threw that.

"Going somewhere, Shachi?"

"James. Locky. What's the meaning of this?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're not letting you go to where your captain is."

"So, you two are the betrayals as well?" his suspect to the numbers of betrayals increased to those nine that are not tied together with him and the rest. He excluded captain, Penguin and Bepo, for an obvious reason.

"Less talk, more fight, Shachi. I recalled you as one of the strongest fighters within the crew. By ranking, Trafalgar Law is the first, followed by Penguin and then you", James launched forward with his brass knuckle aimed to Shachi's face, but the red-headed swiftly jumped to the side.

"Bepo is a mink. Don't forget that James".

"So? I have never seen him go all out. He still ranked number four, beneath you. Aren't you happy?" he grinned wickedly.

Shachi's peripheral vision caught Locky's spear beheading his head. So, he ducked again, summersaulted forward before sliding sideways when James tried to kick his face.

"If you know my strength then why bother fight me? On top of that, only two of you? Is that some form of mocking?" Shachi waited for James' brass-punch to get closer, before he blocked and flicked the wrist immediately. Swiftly grabbing the wrist while his other hand grabbing the elbow, Shachi pulled him forward, and kneed his stomach. But James is able to block the attack by using his leg as well. Now both have their legs parried to each other.

Locky took the chance to swing his spear downwards from behind but being an elite, Shachi back flipped over his head, landing safely on the ground with a light thud. He then immediately hooked kick Locky's head, but being able to foresee the attack, the said male ducked instinctively, leaving Shachi kicking the air instead.

James, seeing the opening, "don't underestimate us, Shachi. We have been holding our true strength all this time to deceive you guys" swung his brass-knuckle hand again, this time managed to nick Shachi across his nose. Shachi quickly slide backwards to put distance between him and the two.

Locky growled, "you and your back flip are so annoying. Just like Penguin's", as he commented. He had his spear twirled between his hands, before having it between his shoulder. Meanwhile, James stepped forward, lifting his brass-knuckle to let Shachi sees.

"See Shachi? Told you not to underestimate us", James licked the blood that trailed down his weapon. Shachi huffed in disgust.

"Better be hurry though, I don't think your captain has much time left," Locky said while looking at the sky above.

Shachi is about to ask what he meant by that, before sound of rustled bushes stole their attention. The three looked warily, until two familiar figures, Mirra and Ray skidded out of the bushes and halted immediately the moment they see the three.

"Tch, now look who decide to join," Locky glared in annoyance.

"Oh Shachi. Still alive," Ray greeted, half smiling.

"He wouldn't had you guys not interrupt us".

Shachi – knew that he could left the two betrayals to his friend – shouted, "you two take care of these two. I'll look for captain!" and turned to his heels to disappear before the two could make any comments.

Locky tried to give a chase but being blocked by Mirra instead. "Why are you helping them, Mirra?"

"Why not?"

"You literally have nothing to do with them. You're not even part of their crew. Why bother helping them and risking your life?" Locky demanded for answer.

"Part fun, part need them back to steer the sub", she shrugged.

"Only that?" Locky got into his fighting stance.

"I have no obligation to answer you," Mirra unsheathed her sword, ready for her battle.

"Aren't you a sly one, like us? Pretending to like them but holding some ill intention. What are you after? Their treasures? Or fame by killing the captain?" The clashed between a spear and sword created a sharp ringing sound, scaring the lives that resided in the forest. And as she listened to Locky's rambles on the possibilities of her true intentions with the Hearts, her mind brought her back to a year ago, when she just started to join a certain pirate crew.

_– "Welcome aboard, Mirra. And congratulations for becoming an executive like them all," A blue haired man was sitting on his throne, smiling widely with opened arms, as he gesturing to the rest of his executives. "From today onwards, you are my assassin". –_

"I'm honest with my feelings," she watched her ice dragonflies shattered to pieces from Locky's strike.

_– I have a new mission for you. This guy worth 30 million berri. Think you can silent him forever?" the same blue haired man smiled wickedly while looking at her. He sounded like giving her a choice, but none of his request have ever been a choice before. It was a mandatory. –_

"You say that, but no one can be kind to others without any reasons." Locky jumped high, bringing his sword downwards. Mirra ducked, and Locky turned 360, leg extended fully. Mirra defensed her face, and Locky changed the aim of his kick, his Mirra's stomach and sent the woman skidded backward.

"Unghh..."

_– Somewhere in an island in a café, Mirra sipped her coffee, with a newspaper in her hands. "His bounty raised by 10 million. This could put more problem to me", her eyes stared back at the dullness of grey's orbs painted on a brown paper. The epithet 'Surgeon of Death' befitting his appearance. Well, the Death part was. She didn't know which part of surgeon was him. Was it because his sword's scabbard got Red Cross? –_

"You're not taking me seriously, aren't you? Your eyes show you're occupied with something else", Locky growled, successfully snapping Mirra's from drifting in her thoughts.

_– "We found him. According to his course, he'll be at Wooley Island soon", her 'friends' informed her. "I'll go there and get it done", the female rose from her sit getting ready to set sail. "We're coming with you", the three nosy 'friends' copied her action. "I told you I can do it by myself." "It's captain's order. He doesn't want you to run away on this". "Hmphhh, with his curse, I can go nowhere". –_

"Hard to when your words remind me of something," she swung her sword horizontally, ice overflowed from the tip but Locky managed to evade, encasing random plants in ice instead.

Somehow, the two had shifted to a more spacious area. Trees are not too much surrounding them, so they have more freedom in mobility instead of having their weapons stuck at the bark every time they swing them.

Ray is nowhere to be seen. Probably have been separated in the middle of the fight.

"You could've been working for someone else, waiting for the right time to strike and reach for your goal," Locky jabbed his spear forward few times, forcing Mirra to go backwards.

Mirra's eyes twitched in annoyance, _oh, you got that right. _

Locky continued, "so, what do you say? Let's stop this and work together. You can achieve whatever your goal is, and I can convince my captain to give you a boat to leave this island, without him laying any fingers on you."

_– "Kill Trafalgar Law. This is your new mission" her captain slurred before dismissed her. –_

Locky's smirk widened as she stopped her movement. Both stood in silence, letting the wind passed by to rustle their hair.

Mirra kept her breathing steady, despite the offer got her heart skipped a beat as she knew she had a good opportunity at the moment. Hey eyes are trained to the grass at her opponent's feet. Locky has been kind enough to give her time to make decision, and she is battling with her inner self to accept or to reject.

Mirra is pretty sure the third chance like this won't come again. Especially not after she got the man-eater witches and Gumbo pirates as her first and second chance.

_Kill and run… that's exactly what I have been doing all this time. And if I kill Trafalgar Law, I don't have to face the punishment that will befell for failing. I can go back to the crew…._

Then few scenes flashbacked in her mind. She remembered all the threats she received every time she's back to the crew from a mission. She remembered all the pain casted on dull eyes of women who got kidnapped by the crew.

She remembered, she was sent to meet Trafalgar Law, in battered and injured condition, just to secure her placement in the sub!

_No! _

_Completing the mission and get back to the crew only to do the same thing over and over again is not what I want. I want freedom. I don't want to get tied to someone who hold my life in his hand. I don't want to obey that guy anymore._

And it was at that time, Mirra realized, Trafalgar Law is not the person she has a score to settle with. It's her captain.

She glared up, eyes burning intensely; "No!!!" as she shouted with no ounce of doubt, shattering Locky's wishful hope for her to accept his offer.

_Killing Trafalgar Law is just a mission. A mission that I have decided to fail. Because now, I have a new target for a new mission_. She exhaled deeply, once again getting ready to continue the battle.

Locky clicked his tongue, "then I guess I'll end you here. Too bad, you should have probably agreed to it, or leave the crew while you have the chance back there. Don't think I'm going easy on you," he too, charged forward with all strength.

–

**_In a cave where Penguin, Bepo and Law are held captive…._**

"Okay, try it again, Bepo."

"Nghhh!!!! I can't! I told you I can't!" Bepo sighed. He'd been trying to break the chain around him, but to no avail, he failed. Whoever tied him did a great job in locking his movement, fully.

"Oh, come on. You broke free from metal cage last time. With no sweat!"

"I know. But I couldn't muster much of strength right now. I don't know, but I feel so weak".

"Were you sedated?"

"Why there's two of you, Penguin?" Bepo ignored him promptly.

"I'm not. Forget about it. Bring out your mink's power I'm pretty sure you can do it!" Penguin still trying to convince Bepo, ignoring the fact that Bepo is currently squinting and widening his eyes repetitively while looking at his face.

"I'm sorry," and as usual out of nowhere, the fluffy ball apologized.

"Sorry?!! Of course you'll be sorry if you cant break the chain and save captain!" Now Penguin started to shout. His vein throbbed and his teeth gritted tightly as annoyance started to rise to his head. Not that he is mad with Bepo, but with current situation where his captain kept squealing in pain with high fever and unknown condition of the rest of his friends, he is freaking out. Not to mention, them two are the only person that knew Law's condition and no matter what, they need to do something before – he didn't want to imagine it – they lose Law forever.

The thoughts alone caused the lines of his sanity getting thinner. It just a matter of time before he fully snap.

"If you think you're so great then break your own chain! You're more useless than me, human!" Bepo barked. They now started to hit each other foreheads, subsequently pushing each other backwards.

"What was that you shitty white fur po – " Penguin watched Bepo's ears perked up before he also caught a faint sound of footsteps approaching them. They stopped bickering, and spontaneously Penguin scooted to hide his captain behind his back and getting ready to lunge forward incase of anything. Though not that he could do that with his chained hands and legs.

They both waited nervously. But when a familiar voice is heard, Penguin shouted happily calling for help.

"Oii Shachi. We're over here! Quick we need your help!"

Soon after, Shachi appeared immediately, and unchained their locks with the keys that he got.

"What happen to captain?"

"Not sure. He's been like this for a while now", Penguin snatched away the chain from his torso, crackling some of his muscles to release some knots.

"Shachi, why are you having a fish on your head?" the question from the polar bear stole their attention, as Shachi raised one eyebrow in question. His hat has long gone so the action is pretty visible this time round.

"Yeah… he's not in good condition either. I think they give him something to make him weak and useless. Whoever did this must know Bepo's strength otherwise they won't bother to weaken the mink".

"You'll be shock to find that most of our friends are plotting this capture and have been pretending as one of us", Shachi mumbled but still hearable. Penguin's expression changed immediately, but before he could utter any words, Shachi beat him to it.

"We have to get to the sub now and bring captain for a test", he hooked Law's arm and wrapped it over his shoulder. But Bepo immediately took him away and carried him on his back instead.

"I heard footsteps outside. I'll carry captain. It'll be much easier", Bepo said and the both nodded in agreement.

As Bepo said, the moment they stepped outside the cave, they are greeted by dozens of Gumbo pirates. Even their captain is there.

"Saving your captain? I don't think so behabehabehabeha".

"What happened to our friends?" Shachi shouted back.

"Oh, they are still there. Still fighting, I guess. Or maybe, already been wiped out by my people! You think you can defeat my crew! You insolent brat, I have over 100 crewmates that can easily overpower yours!"

_(Somewhere back in the sub and near Barith's ship….)_

"Fuck, they destroyed my crossword puzzle collection!" Anko complaint over the railing, his hand gripping the papers in the air while Hiro tossed the last of Barith's crew to a nearby pile of them.

"I'm surprised they didn't used them to wipe their ass after shitting" V commented.

Meanwhile, at another side of the island, Rain is snacking on fruits that he found in a crate that is ready to be carried into the ship. Xan is just hanging out nearby. Clione is lying on the beach, lost into the world of _'How to Beg Captain Law to Accept Me as He Crew Again'._

Shachi gritted in annoyance, Penguin got into his fighting pose while Bepo eyed the surrounding, trying to find even a single luck to escape them all.

"How about you three put Trafalgar Law down?" Barith pulled out his mud technique, encasing his hands with mud that wobbled around, ready to shoot.

–

**_Change to where Mirra is…._**"Heh, won't go easy on me you said? You didn't even make me put much effort to defeat you" Mirra sheathed her sword after slashing it away to remove the blood that stained the tip.

_I didn't become one of the executives for nothing, Locky. May your soul rest in peace._

She sighed before she started to run again to search for either Shachi or Ray.

Lucky though, she didn't have to go so far as she spotted the silhouette of a cave. And even from afar, she could hear Barith's laugh was followed by the battle cry of his crew. She got closer, only to notice Shachi and Penguin fought furiously while Bepo is more focusing on evading Law's from getting snatch by Barith's mud.

She stepped closer and stopped meters away from them. She took a stance, pointing the tip of her sword to the fighting area. The technique she is about to put in use required deep focus and top-notch accuracy, because just a bit away from the path could cause the Hearts to get caught as well. And that is the last thing she wanted to happen.

A cold sweat trailed down her chin as she relaxed and readied herself. And as particles of white ice could be seen building at the tip of her sword, she could feel her power travel through the blade heading to the tip. And once it reached there, a large, powerful avalanche of cold air burst from the tip. The cold air travelled in high speed heading to the Gumbo pirates. Its flash froze whatever it came into contact, encasing them in ice.

Barith put his chase into a stop, as he got shocked when out of nowhere, cold air hurdled to his crewmates and suddenly, they are inside a solid ice chunk. His eyes followed the ice trail, before they landed at a female who is walking nonchalantly to the scene.

"My, my... Did I interrupt something?" Mirra smiled gently.

Barith snapped from his trance, "woman, you again!" as he snarled.

"Yeah…. I'm not happy as much as you, two toothless stupid peg-legged third-rate pirate", she cringed in disgust. But not before adding salt to her words, which definitely stung that stupid pirate.

She directed her eyes to somewhere else, and she noticed Shachi and Penguin are breathing heavily, though their condition is still acceptable. But Bepo is swaying lightly behind them, which raised worry to the female. She wanted to go to them but Barith suddenly shouted while aiming his muddy hands to her.

"KILL HER! ANYONE THAT KILL HER WILL BE REWARDED!"

And immediately, the remaining of the Gumbo pirates rushed to her, though they hesitated a bit after seeing her pulled off a magnificent – and deadly – attack.

She ran around, circling them as she headed to the Hearts. Her peripheral vision caught one of them jumped above her with his leg outstretched aiming to her head, so she sidestepped him only to notice mud balls hurling downwards. She rolled over her head, to the forward and when stopped with her feet planted to the ground, she felt something warm and slimy circling them. She looked down and saw what was the ground in the beginning turned to a pool of mud, with two hands grew out from it and grabbed her ankles.

In an attempt to free herself, two Gumbo pirates jumped while swaying their sword and knife downwards and seeing how close they are and the impossibility to create an iced wall, she pushed herself to lean backward as much as possible. So that the cut that she will receive won't be too gravely.

But just in time, Shachi and Penguin interrupted, as both sent a powerful kick to the pirates sending them flying away. Shachi had swiftly performed a side kick and sent the guy crashing to a tree, while Penguin did a chopping kick on the other guy's back, plummeting the poor guy to the ground next to the female. Penguin then simply landed one leg on that guy and a crack could be heard before he howled in pain and lose conscious.

Mirra lifted her face upward only to see Penguin's back. At least Shachi had turned and faced her.

"Th...thank you," she stuttered. That was some powerful kick, she gulped while watching the poor guys stuck to the tree and planted to the ground. A fit of cough from Law diverted her attention as she saw blood trickling down his lips, and Bepo is still trying to wake him up.

"Mirra-chan", Shachi hooked his arms under the female's armpit before yanked her up to release her from the mud. "Could you please take care of our captain?"

"E….ehh?"

"Something is wrong with him, but we couldn't tell what caused it. Please take care of him", he smiled lightly.

"How about you guys then?" she glanced at the open gash across Shachi's chest. Not too big and the blood had dried but the wound still looked painful to a touch.

"We have some score to settle with him", Penguin butted in. Shachi then turned to join his best friend, both standing with their back facing the female. At the moment, Mirra noticed something dark started to surrounded them both. Like a deadly, dark aura, that swirled around them just like how her white breeze always circling her when she started to use her power.

She noticed Barith looked disturbed, and she definitely didn't want to know what kind of expressions Shachi and Penguin have put on. Especially since by looking at their back alone sent tingling sensation up to her spine. And a not good one indeed.

"No one hurts our captain and walks away. And if anyone ever put our captain in misery", Penguin stopped talking, "then we will kill them!" and Shachi continued.

_It is their fight, their captain that got hurt. I should not participate in this one_.

Replying to their request, "if you insist", she then headed to Bepo immediately after wishing them luck.

"Hands of off him!" she could feel Barith took another aim at Bepo and her, but again, Shachi and Penguin interrupted him by keeping him busy.

"Do you want to fight with them or help me take Tra-san to the sub?" she asked the bear.

"I'll go with you. Honestly, I don't have much of strength. It's as if they drugged me with something to keep me away from able to fight properly". Poor fluffy ball. He is covered with blood almost everywhere, staining his white fur.

Mirra nodded and is about to leave with Bepo, when her nose suddenly caught a sweet and delicate scent that mixed with light bitterness inside. She couldn't tell the sweet scent, but the bitter one smelled like after someone pulled off weed from the ground. She immediately asked Bepo to lay Law down to the ground, which suspiciously rose questions to the bear.

"Did you smell something sweet and bitter around Tra-san?"

"…. Now that you mention it, I did. Why, Mirra-san?"

"Did he being fed with something?" she ignored his question instead. There are still some Gumbo pirates nearby and they tried to sneak attack but Bepo beat them to it.

"Mirra-san, we need to go now. Captain need to be cured!"

"With what, Bepo? Did you know the cause of these?" she mumbled. At the same time, she put her ear on Law's chest, listening to his slight fast heart beats. She took his wrist to count the pulse and frowned upon getting the number. She then ran her hand on his forehead, feeling the burnt on her palm. Oddly, she didn't see or feel any sweat emitted from his pores, making her deduced that something could have been disrupting his parasympathetic nervous system.

"Mirra-chan, are you a doctor? You act like one", Bepo watched in wonder.

"No Bepo. But I have experience in acting like a mom to sick brothers". She said. Opening Law's eyelid, she saw the orbs are larger than usual, and the color seemed hazy and blur, indicating a not so-good sign. And lastly, to test her theory, she held his chin and tilted them lightly, noting that the lips are in fact, dry, and when she opened them, took a sniff, she finally found the source of the previous sweet and bitter-weed scent.

A second sniff she took notified her with the smell of unripen tomato.

"Let's go now. Tra-san is more likely has been poisoned. We need to get it out of his system soon". Bepo's ears perked up immediately when he heard the information, and without thinking, he sprung up to his feet and rush to Barith.

"Oi! Bepo! What are you doing?" but she got ignored.

"You!" the polar bear shrieked. "What did you give captain?!!"

His voice stole the three's attention, and it made them stop fighting for a while.

"Bepo, what do you mean?"

"You need to get going, now, Bepo", Penguin interrupted.

"Mirra-san said that captain was poisoned. What kind of poison you gave him!" The bear continued throwing question, not realizing that Law had just coughed out another blood. At the same time, Shachi and Penguin became more enraged.

"Behabehabeha!!! The female is a smart one, eyy? Don't worry, give him a bit more time. And the hell will greet him, behabehabeha!" This of course caused Bepo's fur to rise, face painted in anger. But before he could do anything stupid especially when he himself in a tipsy condition, Mirra reminded him regarding Law's situation, and the needs to rush back before it's too late.

"Take care, you two. Get back to the ship immediately once done!" Mirra turned to her heels and followed closely behind Bepo who carried Law on his back. By this time, all of Barith's people have been wiped out, leaving only he himself, and the two Hearts.

–

Rain won't be giving out a girl's scream if it is not to a fact that a sudden cold wind just blasted out of the forest, ten meters away from where he is standing while munching on fruits. The wind had flash-frozen everything that it passed, leaving an icy aisle as a trail. A scenic view indeed with all whites and icy effect. If only it won't cause death upon impact, Rain is pretty sure he will be enjoying the view.

What's more frightening is the fact that the temperature suddenly dropped to a freezing point – or probably lower than that – sending shivers to him and the captured Gumbo pirates while they waited for whatever beast that caused it to show its face.

True, the beast did come out from the aisle. A white fur beast wearing orange boiler suit with a long-legs creature on his back and a red haired with the said hair swept to different directions.

"Oh great, you guys still keep some of them alive," Mirra sighed in relief before immediately rushing to one of them. Grabbing his collar, she yanked him up making him to be the next candidate for 'scream like a girl' contest, that specially made for man.

"What happened to captain?" Xan immediately got to Bepo, who is panting heavily. Bepo explained everything, and they change a look of worries since none of the crew knows much about poison.

"What kind of poison you guys fed him?"

"Heh, I won't tell you a thing, bitch", he smirked, probably thinking that's the best thing to do. But Mirra pulled him closer, giving the most intimidating look that could parry with Law's.

"If you don't tell me, your next hours will involve with me plucking off your nails one by one, then cutting your flesh bits by bits before I throw them into the sea, forcing you to watch the sharks feasting on your parts. I promised that every single cut is just 5cm wide so I can cut more and more of your flesh," purplish-dark aura surrounded her, as she reeked of evil.

The poor guy shrieked for the third time, pissing himself instead which forced the female to step back a bit, but still towering over him. And when the guy still denying his knowledge about the poison, Mirra unsheathed her sword, making it obvious to the guy's eyes how her blade glistened under the reflection of the sunlight, and how it eager to bath in blood.

He got more scared from it.

"No use asking him or any of us, Mirra-chan. Barith keeps everything to himself, and if anyone knows anything, they are Barith himself and his scientist".

Mirra turned her head, still glaring dagger before dropping the guy in his hand, "and where is this scientist?"

Clione jumped in fright before pointing to a guy, bathed in a pool of blood not far from them. He's dead.

Mirra sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"But there might be some information on what kinda poison they used in the lab room. I can show you the room, maybe you can do something about it". Upon saying that, he received intense glares from everyone, including his own friends from two different crew. That is more than enough to make him regret his decision of ever being born.

And right on time, a yellow submarine made its appearance near to the ship.

"At least we have something. Does anyone know how to conduct treatment? Putting the IV drip, draw blood, read his heart's monitoring thingy, and so on?"

"Ray can assist you with that. Other than them, Shachi and Penguin, or probably Anko could do the same to. What's your plan, Mirra?" Rain questioned.

"We test his blood, figure out the poison, create an antidote and feed him".

"You know how?"

"I know a lot about natural poison, like those that due to plants and animals since my brother loves to stuff anything that looks edible to his mouth and I need to look after him. But if it's chemical or manmade poisons…that could be hard", she frowned.

Naturally, having Law who is the captain and the doctor for the crew, none of the Hearts bothered to learn much about medical things. Their strength mostly channeled to something else, since Law himself made it obvious to leave everything involving doctoring and healing to himself. Though he did have assistant when he performed surgery and taught some basics and first aid to some of them, they are not useful at the moment. And now, when the only doctor in the ship goes down, the crew finally found that it is more important to have a second doctor instead of a laundry maker.

"We got to hurry then and get you the information. Would any of you follow me?" Clione offered. He heard the Gumbo pirates shaming him for helping the enemies, for being a coward and surrender to escape the Hearts' wrath, and for betraying their captain Barith. But Clione shut them up with his regrets of ever following the person who acted innocent after putting a massacre to his village.

"We have no time to waste. If I found you do anything funny, I'll kill you on the spot", Rain took his offer and include his warning as well at the same time. Clione just smiled at that.

–

Shachi skidded to the side as Barith launched his mud wave. The ground had almost fully covered with mud, and it became more slippery to stand still especially with bare feet. Barith changed his tactic by throwing mud balls, and while Shachi ran around circling him, Penguin came from above to send a swift kick to Barith's neck. It hit the target but being a logia, it just fixed back to its original form.

He laughed watching the two struggling.

"That's all? And you think you can defeat me? You're just some brats behabehabeha!"

And between his maniac and funny laugh, Shachi and Penguin nodded to each other before rushing to him again, this time with a strategy to prove their theory.

Penguin, running with his battle cry, brought his fist straight to Barith's face, earning a satisfying 'splosh' sound before it got fixed again. Penguin continued attacking, – knife-hand spear thrust, sideway chopping cut, 360 reverse kick, – he threw everything that he could think of to Barith's head. And as the head fixing itself, Barith brought his muddy hand to grab Penguin's face.

Penguin did his back flip, and while he bent backwards like a bridge, he shot his legs upward, kicking Barith under the jaw, splattering mud to the ground.

"Behabehabeha, you can't hurt me at – " Shachi made a sudden appearance as Barith talked while still fixing his face. He aimed his punch to Barith's stomach but the said guy jumped backwards. Pushing forward, Shachi still trying to hit him again, and by the time he tried to drop-sweep Barith, the guy created a mud wave that raised from the ground, lifting him high up in the air, leaving Shachi kicking the mud instead.

"Behabehabeha!"

Barith launched several mud-balls while riding his mud-wave, chasing Penguin and Shachi around. Some of his attacks globed his own crewmates that fell unconscious and their body twitched while being suffocated.

The two suddenly turned back from running, both jumping high to the air at the same level as Barith, as each kick him at different places. Too slow to react and had never predict this, the hits sent him rocketing down to the ground. He groaned in pain as he felt his sternum cracked.

Shachi and Penguin sauntering to him.

"It seems that we are right…"

"Wh-hat?"

"Somehow, you can only turn one part of your body into mud at a time. Pretty weird since you are a logia. Nevertheless, it's an advantage to us".

"Play time is over, Barith". Penguin stepped in closer, bringing his face upwards while he glared downwards, giving off a sure-real evil look.

Shachi might be a cheerful person while Penguin is a laid-back one that used to go a little bit kinder towards his opponents. But when both are dead serious, they can be the version of scary Law. This, the Hearts could confirm.

–

Mirra pushed aside all Law's stuff towards an end of the table to give much space to place the retrieved items that could hold the information to the poison. She watched Ray drew blood from Law's arm while Anko rummaging the cabinets looking for a certain drug. V barged in with a 5% dextrose in water IV but received a smack on his forehead when he was about to connect it to Law, because he got the wrong one for sure.

He resorted to help Anko searching for an activated charcoal since he is still struggling to locate one.

"Have you guys found the activated charcoal? Feed him with 50g of it. And monitor his heart rate and temperature. See if there's any indication it's slowing down after the ingestion".

"Charcoal? We have them in the storeroom though. Won't it be faster to take it from there?" V asked.

"That's charcoal for our BBQ night. Don't get confused with activated charcoal. You are going to kill captain if you feed him with that", luckily, Ray overheard the conversation and cleared his misunderstanding. Otherwise, terrible thing could happen.

"But Mirra, is it fine to give him that? We don't know how to deal with poisons and you are not a doctor too. What if he gets worse?", Anko asked in worry.

"Don't worry. I've gone through the scientist's journal and there's no indication of usage on alkalis or strong acids. He's not poisoned with manmade chemicals". She took the blood sample from Ray and immediately carried out a blood serum test.

"And just so you know, Tra-san has been fed with the poison for three times so far. That activated charcoal will only prevent the adsorption of the chemicals from the third time of its ingestion, which was 3 hours ago".

"Th…then, the other two times?"

Mirra turned to Anko, putting one of her hand on his shoulder, "they are binding happily to his blood cells and organs like a leech sucking on your blood", then she patted his shoulder before continued reading the journal in her other hands. Anko stared dumbfounded.

"How did you know three times?"

"I asked those pirates outside just now. Barith put them in charged to feed Tra-san the poison after certain hours. And I think I know what kind of alkaloids poisoned him, judging from the scientist's bookmark on certain pages". She opened one of the pages and showed it to those in the infirmary room.

They saw lots of hexagons, with letters nearby, lines are drawn on the edges and some are connected to each other, but they couldn't figure out what are those. The only thing they understood was the small section at the side of the book which listed symptoms of god-knows-what.

"Someone gets me Dragendorff's, Mayer's, Wagner's and Hager's reagent. There's something I need to test", she closed the book, looked at the table where test tube racks had just been placed there. Few test tubes which contained colourful liquids were properly put into rack, and she turned back to the rest, only to see them giving her a confused look. She raised an eyebrow at their silence.

"We…. Don't know what those are."

The female grumbled, "just read the labels. I'm pretty sure you can find from the names. And Clione, get back to your ship and search those in your ship's lab. If the scientist has the poisons, he should have the reagent too".

"Hmmm alright. I'll search for it. But first, I need to jot down the names again". Clione took a pen and a paper randomly, "First, dragon fruit what???"


	8. Mirra, the Silent Killer

**_A/N:_**

_**Vi-Violence: **regarding whether dairy products could help when someone was poisoned or not, I'm not really sure about that. I never learn that in school (as far as I remember). So I cant really answer you that. Am sorry_

_And at the same time, I would like to thanx everybody who has been following my story so far. And also thanks for the private message and the encouraging words, but just fyi, I'm a female and straight so... I can't reply to your love, hun..._

_Nevertheless, it excited me when I received an email indicating someone has just favourited or add this story to their subscription. Though I know there's a lot of mistakes here and there, and the story is not really that stable..but I'm still trying and I'm not gonna lie that writing is sooo hard. You just have to consider everything from every aspect... geeeezzzz..._

_Well, enough with the babbling and enjoy the new chapter~_

–

**8\. Mirra, the Silent Killer**

Law dreamed of fire raining down like falling stars.

Standing on a coble stone, he watched as the once beautiful and pristine white country turned to ashes. His hands that he attempted to reach and save the people nearby simply passed through them. As if his hands are untouchable. As if his self is invincible. And been already countless time in this kind of dream, Law knew whatever he attempted to do is futile. He felt like being punished. In a repetitive dream that he'd never asked for, he is only allowed to stand and watch. And despite him not making any movements, the scene laid to his eyes will always transition themselves. Like a film roll played by a movie projector.

And right now, in front of him, marching across the Flevance streets are an extermination crew; wearing all whites with a gas mask, where their weapons are fully loaded, and bullets are flying through those attempting to flee. Screams and agony filled the air as the ravenette swallowed thickly to control himself.

The scene transitioned to his helpless younger self, watching his parents got shot by the extermination crew right before his eyes. He watched as his kid-self, bumped into dead bodies of his school friends. And the sweet and kind sister that offered to help him out of the city, she also wasn't sparred from the tragedy. Law continued to watch as a new transition took place, where his kid-self, kneeled right in front of his parent's hospital, crying all out as fire licking the building and burning down his sister inside. The name of his sister became the only thing he cried.

The scene finally getting blurry, and some sort of white light started to blind his eyes. He sighed in relief. A familiar sound of moving machines slowly entered his ears, and as much as he loved to get a little bit more of sleep to fully rest, he's actually glad that he finally came to his senses, because there is no meaning in sleeping if it's only playing his nightmare over and over again. And since he is still feeling light-headed and weak, he resorted to staring the ceiling of the infirmary room, gathering his thoughts while listening to the beeping sound of the machine which connected to him.

_The last time I remember, I was held captive in a cave with burning fever. How did I end up in my infirmary room?_

A familiar voice on his left suddenly greeted him, followed by a sound of a turning page.

"Congratulations, sir. You're alive," she playfully commented.

He saw the red-haired Mirra, sitting on a chair that has been pulled a bit closer to him reading one of his medical books as she is killing time. She had marked a page before closing the said book, stood up and took a glance at the monitor next to his right head before smiling lightly.

"I'll get your crew now." She's about to leave when Law suddenly grabbed her wrist, pulling her to a stop.

"Wait, what happened to me?" Mirra's warmth skin felt good in Law's cold fingers, and he had wished the warmth will stay longer as it is so comforting at the moment. But the female had turned and he needed to let her wrist free so she could face him again.

"You were poisoned by Barith, Tra-san. I managed to create an antidote, but I'm not truly sure if you have fully cured from it. You might need to carry out a test on yourself since you're more expertise in this area."

Law heard her clear, but what questioned him was why her voice sounded so smooth and silky? On top of that, there's a pair of yellow-white shaded wings on her back, and a bright yellow halo on her reminiscing an angle. _What's going on here?_

A few more blinks he made, and the wings and the halo disappeared, replaced with her figures in his yellow-black hoodie. His jolly roger looked proud on her front.

_Wait, my hoodie?_

But before Law could say anything else, Mirra made her way to the door and disappeared immediately. Law blinked in confusion to make sure his eyes aren't playing tricks on him.

Minutes after she had left, he could hear loud footsteps rushing up the stairs and echoing throughout the hallway before the infirmary door opened harshly with all his crew tumbling and falling on each other while trying to get in. Law, now in sitting position, watched from the bed as he sighed loudly when a sudden headache struck. And while they are still on the floor trying to wiggle free, he watched as one by one of them got pulled backwards and being tossed behind – judging from their whacking and wincing sound – as Bepo and Penguin made in and locked the door immediately. They panted a bit after such action.

Law watched as both of them stood on both of his side. He turned his gaze to Penguin, and about to say something when the said man bent down and wrapped his arms around his neck. Tears streamed on his face and the salty water tainted Law's cheek as he grumbled in annoyance.

"Dammit captain, you almost died. I can't believe we almost lost you!" Penguin tightened his hold and Law staggered backwards. His legs planted to the bed as Bepo pawed on them, and he also, wetting his pants with his river tears. Bepo is begging him not to leave them between his streak of tears and snots, which the captain found it is hard to hear properly.

_I can't even get what you are saying, Bepo_, Law sweat dropped when the bear suck on his snots while talking.

"Stop crying. I can't hear you two. And someone please tell me what exactly had happened." Law again, sighed deeply, rolling his eyes. Maybe waking up is a bad idea after all. Maybe he should have continue sleeping despite the nightmares.

"You... you were poisoned. According to Mirra-chan, it was Atropa Belladonna and another dose of it could have kicked you off immediately. And you already had your third dose. It just that the poison was yet to kick in." Penguin explained between his sobs.

"You're skipping points, Penguin. I need the whole story".

"Mirra-san yeally put all her esshot to shreate the anshidote" Bepo blew his snort on the cover.

"Okay, okay, I get it. I almost die. Would you stop cryi –" a sudden loud bang on the door jerked them all up as they stared at it bewildered. A constant pounding soon followed when the door refused to open despite the knob being rattled from the other side.

"Captain! Captain! Are you okay? You guys, open the door!!" Shachi wailed from the other side. And once Bepo opened the door, the bear could only feel strong breeze whipped his fur, tears along with his snot as Shachi wheezed in immediately. A loud shriek of _'Captain Laaaawwwwww'_ followed suit as the red-haired, literally, jumped on the captain, knocking his torso with elbow and pushed him flat to the bed.

Law whizzed out air while Penguin has the audacity to, also, find a space to hug his captain, not minding the fact that the ravenette is in pain. He didn't want to be left out from expressing his love and care to his captain too.

Law's eyes met with Bepo's, and he's pretty sure the bear felt neglected after seeing his beloved person tangled in a mess with two persons, with himself excluded in the small party. His glistened eyes showed how much he didn't want to miss the group hug, so he….

"Wait, hold on Bepo. Stay there, don't come here!" But Law's begs are futile as the said bear already skipped steps and tip toed before lunging forwards to them. It ended up with three of them got crushed by a heavy polar bear, and what's worse is the fact that Law is currently bearing a weight of two men-adults and a freaking monster.

"Get off Bepo!" Shachi shrieked.

"Bepo, I can't breathe!!" Penguin talked with his mouth muffled to Law's torso.

"I sw-wear... I'll kill you three_… –whiz_– if you won't get up n-now..." Law's eyes rolled behind as only the whites can be seen.

"Sorry!!!" Bepo flattened them even more in attempt to apologize.

Which resulted the three to shout, "just get off already!!!"

Unbeknownst by the four, Mirra is leaning against the door, listening to their small fights as she smiled, before she headed to the kitchen. She knew the crew will have their appetite back to normal since their captain is awake, so she has to get to her duty again.

–

It's midnight, and the ravenette could no longer sleep. Part of it is because he already slept a lot, and he didn't really sleep much anyways. And another part is because the crew's snores are too loud, especially when they combined and resonated together in a certain manner and tune.

Yes, the crew has decided to sleep with him together in the infirmary room. And since the beds are not enough to accommodate them all at the same time, they laid plain blanket on the floor and settled in. Surprisingly, even Xan, the most antisocial person joined in. And unsurprisingly, Clione, who is marked as the betrayal is in the same room as well, after being threatened by everyone to stay together and ensure he won't do anything funny anymore. The only person not in the room is the female, which Law totally understood why.

Law gazed at the empty bowls and glass on the table nearby. Mirra had made him a soup for dinner, and as usual, an edible one indeed. He had never realized he had been so starving all this time, and he had been requesting for more than three round that night.

And Mirra gladly served him.

Thinking that he needed some fresh air, Law pulled out the IV drip from his wrist and made his way between scattered bodies on the floor. He is thinking to use the infirmary room's door to exit, but since Ray is leaning right next to it, he directed his feet to another door which is connected to his personal office. Law's infirmary actually connected to two other rooms that are separated with two metal doors; one is the surgery room, located behind the infirmary, and another is his office, where he always locked himself inside to run his specimens and experiments. The office is on the right of the infirmary, and it is actually accessible through two doors; the one in the infirmary and the other from the outside like usual.

Upon entering his office, he noted not much of the room is out of order despite being used by Mirra to create his antidote. The only thing that looked disturbed is the long metal table at the left side of the room. All his experiments and things that he cultivated for medicinal research purpose were pushed to the right side, while the other is where all Mirra's research things resided. These included papers on information of the said poison, the said dried Atropa Belladonna – the roots, leaves and flowers –, test tubes containing her experimented antidotes and his blood, and few more other things. Of all the things, Law is more interested on the said papers, so he took it and skimmed over her scribbles.

He could see words like Datura stramonium, Hyoscyamus niger, Scopolia carniolica and few more has been listed, before reaching to Atropa belladonna circled in bold bright red ink. Mirra probably listing out the solanaceous plants that could have poisoned him before reaching to Belladonna as her conclusion. The second page contained list of symptoms that he had experienced. Dry lips, flush skin, enlarged pupils and high fever with difficulties to sweat; they are all indeed caused by the said plants. And if he includes the possibility of hallucination, then that could answer why he saw her in an angel form earlier... And probably his hoodie too…?

The list then followed with the chemical properties of atropine and scopolamine; the two most important Belladonna alkaloids that were responsible to his intoxication. The information regarding the alkaloids are detailed and completed with list of required herbs and ingredients to make the antidotes. Law knew the female didn't even refer to any of his books regarding the plants, because he definitely didn't have one. So her knowledge on the said poison questioned him at what else she knows about, and at the same time, sent awareness since the female is too mysterious and has lots of unknown secrets.

But that didn't mean she is perfect in all ways. Her own weakness is not knowing how to handle current technologies in helping her during medical practice. He recalled as Penguin explained that the female did lost in the conversation of him and Ray regarding electrocardiogram (ECG). ECG is actually a tool which can help in hinting type of toxin involved from the specific change in ECG's pattern. And as the both males explained the thing in detail, Mirra got more confused and Ray, in the end, became the interpreter to the result.

She also didn't know how to check his heartbeat from the electrocardiography. All she knew was as long as there is ups and downs in the magnitude, then that's mean he is still alive. Only when the magnitude became all flats and a noisy straight 'beeeeeeep' is heard should she get panic. That, indeed, could be a problem because in a situation when his heart beats too fast or too slow, she won't know that pacemaker is needed to correct back the rhythm.

Hence, Ray, Shachi and Penguin has been exchanging shifts to watch over his vital rates for these past two days. And as much as Bepo want to be part of them, he couldn't as he was in charged with treating the rest of the injured crewmates, and become the second person-in-command.

_All these things just to treat me, a stranger that happened to help her after being beaten by pirates. Why?_ Law sighed, dropping the papers back to the table. No doubt the eye bags under her eyes is a big deal. It almost reflected his own when he's too absorbed into his research and experiments. Law sure owed her a lot this time round. Despite being a no one in the crew, she is more than willing to help. Twice, might he add.

_But why all those kindnesses? What is running in her mind? What is she hiding?_

Those questions have been lingered on his mind for too long, and while his mind is busy having a little war, he caught a faint sound coming from the deck. He thought it's an owl hooting at the moment, but it couldn't be since he could hear words within the melody.

_~ Running out of air, buried in a sadness~_

_~Want a way out of this paralyzing world~_

Since the sub has emerged and every of his crew is sleeping, that voice could only mean hers. So he stepped up the stairs, peeking over the slightly opened deck's door as the voice getting clearer to his ears.

_~When the night is cold, and you feel like no one knows~_

_~What it's like to be the only one buried in this hole~_

The female, is actually singing. And it's not bad at all. Another thing about her that he didn't know, but that's not an important information, so he shoved it to the back of his mind.

_~Searching for a way to escape the madness~_

_~A dire need for change as we fight for better days~_

_~The hurt and the pain cut deep like a razor blade~_

_~Holding in a cry for love~_

_~Abandoned and afraid~_

_~When the night is cold, and you feel like no one knows~_

_~What it's like to be the only one buried in this hole~_

_~You can make it to the sunrise~_

_~You can make it to the sunrise~_

Law knew there's a meaning to the song that she sang. But he's not in a position to confront her regarding that. Nevertheless, he continued listening until she finished singing, before finally retreated to his own room to carry out his original plan.

Whatever the female is feeling, or in sad for, he wouldn't know, unless she starts talking. And that didn't look like an easy task to be done, since he himself is known as a bottled up person.

–

The next day, Law showed up in the galley a little bit late than usual. He had fallen asleep after taking a warm shower, and he woke up with better mood since he didn't have the usual nightmare like usual. But his presence alone in the galley alerted everyone, as they still worried of his condition. They even requested him to go back to the infirmary to rest, nicely in fact, but Law simply shut them all up with a single glare.

Do they dare enough to go against their own captain? No, they definitely not.

"Where's Mirra-ya? She's not eating?" the captain questioned as he couldn't find the female among the ten heads in the room.

"She said she's not hungry for a breakfast. So she head to the deck just now to hang out".

"I see... get her inside soon. We're going to resume our voyage and leave this island," Law ordered. They have been staying in the same island for three days, along with Barith's crew who survived the fight and sat quietly in their own ship at the other part of this island. Law pretty sure his crew hated to share the same island with someone who tried to kill him, and he praised them for putting lots of effort in restraining themselves from reattacking them again for another set of revenge. _(Note: Bepo threatened them that if they go and fight and back with injuries, they will lick their own wounds because no more medicine can he prescribe to them)._

"What about him, captain?" Hiro pointed his thumb to Clione, who guiltily looked downwards.

"I'll talk to him in a while. And depending on his answer, he either stay or we drop him on the next island". A chorus of _'haii~' _is what he received.

"Oh by the way, captain, Mirra-san said that she wanted to have a talk tonight after dinner. With everyone", Bepo burped lightly before apologized. Law raised an eyebrow at that, and Bepo replied with a shrug of his shoulder. So Law dismissed him with a nod.

–

Dinner went... quiet that night. Aside from clinking sound made when spoons met with plates, and the slurping and gulping sound as someone drank, and the slight hum of the machines that vibrated through walls, no other noises are made. All eyes mostly focused on the food on the plates, and only occasional glances are exchange between the crew when they gazed at the spaced-out female that busy playing with her food, instead of feeding on it. They all are wondering what had hit the female to make her go all silence ever since this morning.

She had walked in silence. Read in silence. And cooked in silence. She even ignored Bepo's _'hi'_ that afternoon and walked away nonchalantly like the mink has never exist before. And right now, the evidence is pretty clear that she's troubled with something. Even Law has took a couple of times staring at her blank face and see if there's any reaction when he shot her a deep glare. But there's none.

She must be in a deep thinking if she couldn't sense stares directed to herself.

"Mirra-san?"

"Hmm, Bepo? What's wrong?" she felt a paw tenderly brushed her face, where her hair swayed previously and has being swept to behind her ears.

"Your hair is in the food. You should focus when eating," Bepo said after wiping off a bit of curry sauce that stick to the strands.

"Oh... thank you," she smiled gently.

"Mirra-chan. Is something bothering you? I heard you want to talk with us?" Shachi leaned to his chair with his hand draping over Penguin's shoulder.

Mirra took a look at everyone's face, and only then she noticed that they had done with their meals. She is the only one who is still with half-full plate but seeing how she's not having any appetite to continue eating, she collected her plate along with others to drop them in the sink.

"We'll talk after I drop this plate to the sink."

"I'll help you", Xan offered as he also got up to pick his captain's and the rest's plate.

Mirra sat back in her place as she faced the ravenette in front of her. He had a book opened as he skimmed through the content, that Mirra never knew when he had left to take it. But that didn't matter. She can't let her focus get to something else. And she intended to come off clean tonight.

She took a deep breath, "Trafalgar Law, under my captain's order, I was in charged to kill and silent you forever", as she watched him slowly lifting his face up to meet with hers.

And the reactions from the others are quick. Rustling noises and chairs scrapping the floor resonated as some of the crew – mainly Ray, Anko, Hiro and Xan – stood up abruptly with their weapons aimed at the female. Anko is the one closest to her as he sat next to her right, so his gun is pressing her temple directly after he pulled the slide to load cartridge in.

"Anko!" Shachi meant to stop him. But he partially hesitated.

"Let's not rush to things, guys". Bepo waved frantically. He didn't doubt Anko's gun skill, but he is currently sitting right on Mirra's left and if she decided to evade, the bullet could hit him instead. Especially in this tiny room, everyone is bound to get shoot.

"Anko. If you have yet to notice, bullet don't kill me. I'm a logia, remember?" Mirra tilted her head lightly, before facing Law again.

"Tra-san, if you could kindly order your crew to lower down their weapons, then we can continue talking without harming each other. What do you say?" Law narrowed his eyes as he closed his book. He folded his palms under his chin, still remained as calm as ever before telling his crew to back off.

"Mirra-chan? What's the meaning of this? Are you... are you really here to kill captain?" tired with all this betraying and killing activities, Penguin just wanted a nice and safe month, out of piracy activities. Hah, he wished.

"I really hope this is April 1st and we all can laugh it off, hahahaha" Rain solemnly laughed. But no one in the same boat as him so he shut up instantly.

"It's not a joke." Mirra dug her hand under the table and this alerted everyone immediately, – except the captain. He's too cool to be surprised at the moment – as she tossed bundle of newspapers on the table. She spreaded open few pages, all showing news regarding the wanted silent killer that has been actively doing killing spree and left a daisy on the crime's scene.

She tapped her index finger to a picture of a person cladded in black from head to toe, "avoiding my identity from being revealed is easy when I put on a black cap, black cloak and mask over my mouth. You saw the daggers when you saved me last time, Tra-san? Those are my weapon of choice when doing this job. Even a slightest hint on my sword and my devil fruit power could blow off my cover", as she smiled genuinely.

Law took a look at all articles in front of him. He didn't have to reread them again, as he always get to the news immediately whenever he gets his hands on the paper. He knew from all the reports, how skilful she is in aiming the jugular part of the neck, or the middle between the forehead, or the heart of the victims to kill in one hit. He also knew her stealthy skill is a top notch if the marines failed to uncover her, let alone the gender. And with her devil fruit power, he knew she is not going down so easily. He has to plan well if he didn't want her to sink the entire sub if she suddenly goes wild.

"I strike you as a smart person that won't reveal your identity, let alone your mission to me and my crew. But seeing you doing the opposite, might as well just cut to the chase, right Mirra-ya? What do you want then?"

"I'm glad you ask. I just have a small favour. In exchange to letting you go, Tra-san, help me to kill my captain. That's the ticket to my freedom". She gave her pointed look, to make sure every knew she's not playing around.

"Kill your captain?"

They all stared wearily as her fingers move to her blouse's buttons, and she started unbuttoning them. Some of the crewmates hesitated to continue watching, especially Anko who's standing next to her and looking down from above gave him a nice shot on her covered breast.

"Anko, would you mind?" the female side glared him, as the male stuttered and "fine. Do anything funny and I shoot you immediately", as he turned facing elsewhere.

Reaching the last button, Mirra turned to her back before lowering down the cloth and unclipped her bra. She swiftly swept away her hair to the front, and gasped and gawked could be heard as they looked at her back.

"This is a curse mark, burnt by my captain that makes me follow every of his order," she said. It's nothing fancy actually. In between her shoulder blades, there's a mark in a compass design with a skull in the middle, and a big arrow passed behind the skull with the tip directed to the South point. A letter of S drawn near the tip. They are in black colour.

"In normal eyes, it looks like a normal tattoo. But the mark actually inflicts pain when it's being activated. It can't be stop or remove unless my captain does it, and another way could probably through his death". She put on the blouse back as she deemed it is long enough for them to see. Buttoned them all up quickly, she then turned to face the ravenette and the crew again.

"Mirra, if I wasn't mistaken, isn't the design resembled much to Cardinal Pirates' jolly roger?" Ray had been wondering where he had seen the design before. He's pretty sure he has seen it somewhere. Probably in a newspaper or bounty poster.

"Yes, it is. It's been 3 months and a week since I left the crew to carry out the mission. I have only 3 weeks left before I need to return to them again."

"3 months and a week... means ever since we met you, you have been planning to kill captain?"

"Isn't that what I've said?"

"So you fake friends with us to get to captain?" Shachi sighed.

"If that making you guys lowering your guards, then yeah..."

"Then approaching us in battered condition also part of your plan?" V has a finger on his chin.

"Ahh... there was a modification to the original plan. But as long as I get into the sub, other things are not matter."

"Then you will still be hunting our captain's life?" Bepo needed to ask. He didn't want to lose his best friend and his sweet female friend that always cook his favourite grilled fish.

"If that is still my intention, I won't be confronting you all right now." Mirra rubbed her temple in irritation, because she's seeing a repetitive pattern of asking and answering the same questions over again.

"I don't get it. Why must everyone wants to kill our captain?" Rain scratched his head in confusion. he earned an incredulous look from the rest as he just asked a question that even a baby seal knew the answer to it. _(Note: Your captain is sadistic and ruthless enough to make every pirate as his enemies. Another note: only pirates. Law still has manner to not destroying villages and innocent people)._

"Can you at least ask some intelligent question?" V folded his arm.

"Okay... so who's Cardinal Pirates?"

...

"What did you do everytime you asked for newspapers?"

"Well, you asked me to hide the crossword section from getting to Anko's hand. So that was what I did."

"Heyyy!!!" Anko gave a sharped look at V, and he whistled feigning innoncence. Ray tried to calm them down before another meaningless fight errupted, and Rain is still asking the same question to Xan, seeing how everyone else is ignoring him. Xan replied with _'go drown yourself' _as an answer.

"Tra-san. Could you get your crew calm down and give me the answer that I want?"

"And what answer did you want?"

"That... you will help me to kill my captain...?"

"And what makes you think I'll agree to it, Mirra-ya? As a matter of fact, you're on my sub, and surrounded by my people. You don't make demands when I'm in power here", Law stood up from his chair and towering above the female. This of course, trigger a sense of challenge in the female's heart, so she also, stood tall and face to face with the ravenette.

The crew are amazed at the female for standing on herself against someone who is way taller than her.

"Tra-san, you do know we're in the middle of the sea. All I've to do is run amok here and we all could sink to the depth of the sea and die together. If you think I'm just all talk, then you can try me."

"Mirra-ya, is that an order? I've made it clear I hate being ordered, didn't I?" he pressed his palm on the table and leaned forward, making his glare visible to the female.

"Then what would you propose? Want me to say please, instead?" she shrugged it off with no care to what's possible could happen if she continued being arrogant. The crew has been nervous watching the conversation.

A minute has passed, and neither the two make any move or utter any word. The air is becoming so suffocating that for no reason, Bepo sweated furiously in his boiler suit.

"Okey, look. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be this bitchy when asking for help", Mirra resolved to sit back to her chair seeing that if both continue with their arrogance, she won't get what she wanted at the end. "I'm a bit edgy now that I know I'm nearing the deadline, and I'm seriously didn't want to kill you anymore".

The invisible white flag that she pulled out made Law returned to his sit as well, as he also, decided to let that event slide for this time. After all he owed the female countless time. Maybe fulfilling her request can make him at ease from the feeling of indebted to someone.

"What lead to the change of your heart?"

"Honestly, there's no guarantee that I will be given another mission to kill someone that might have the power to stand against my captain in the future. So I don't know when else I can as for help."

"After all, I can't imagine myself being hated by your crew. They're... such a good friend. And I have so much fun spending time with them this three months." Mirra smiled genuinely, and the men blushed slightly knowing they are responsible to her happiness for all this time they knew each other. They didn't know the female felt like that.

"Tell me exactly how you joined the crew in the first place. And what did the mark do to you, Mirra-ya."

"It was two years ago." She started her story. "I left my island to see around and gain a bit more knowledge regarding the real world, because, you know, I've been staying in a mountain for about ten years. I need to learn a bit before going for my adventure. I reached Luna Island after months of travelling and stayed there for a while, and even made friends with the villagers. One night, the village had a festival and drinking contest was held. I participated, won the competition and got so drunk that I didn't realized someone drugged me to sleep. The next day when I woke up, I was chained, along with other women inside one of the rooms of Cardinal pirates' ship." She gulped as she reminisced her idiocy.

"My power allowed me to break free immediately. But I underestimated their strength when I confronted them. Captain has executives, which all have devil fruit powers so fighting them all was really a stupid decision. To cut story short, my power caught captain's interest, he burnt the mark on my back, and by force, welcomed me to be part of his crew".

"Then, the mark, Mirra-chan?" Shachi sat back on his chair after retrieving a packet of cheese biscuit from the kitchen. He passed the crackers around to everyone.

"The mark's main purpose is to inflict burning sensation to the victims. It acts more like a torture device that captain can activates and deactivates at his own will. When it's activated, the mark will be in blazing red, and you can smell something like burning meat in the air. Every one of the crew has this mark. And no one could ever leave the crew or disobey his order in fears of the pain".

This could have been a great bed time story, especially with the crew busy munching while listening attentively. Mirra didn't want to miss the opportunity of tasting the crunchy crackers, so she also, stretched her hand to the package before munching on it lightly. Law and Ray is the only sane person to treat the situation as serious as it is.

"Captain, can we ask ques – "

"No. keep eating and shut your mouth".

"Haaaiiii~" a chorus of dissatisfied growl answered him.

"What is it there for me to defeat him?"

"I... I don't know. I ride on your sympathy right now. I have nothing to offer. Except for their treasures. One of them is actually good in finding ancient gold, so I'm pretty sure their treasures hold lots of value".

Law could feel his crew giving him _'money'_ eyes. Those dumbass will bug him to have a statue of mermaid in bronze in the middle of the rec room.

"And also it's a good way to repay back my kindness," she muttered lightly.

"And what happen to you if you fail the mission and go back empty handed?"

"Captain didn't accept failure, so normally he will kill them on the spot."

"So you never failed a mission before?"

"I did, once."

"But you still alive, Mirra-san."

"Punishment for failing is different for executives. We'll be given second choice, which is called 'Escape Within 24 Hours'. In other word, you fight all the executives and stay alive for the next 24 hours, or at least until each of them are defeated. If you lose, they have the right to beat you until they satisfy. And they don't have to hold back from killing – wahhh!"

Mirra has been taken down in surprise as Bepo suddenly hugged her sideways, crying tears as he sympathised on her condition even more. Some of the crew are making sad face too, but they are being a man by not letting a single of tears drop drown, which Mirra mentally praised on their success.

_Despite knowing that I'm here to kill their captain... they still being nice to me... I really can't kill them..._ she painfully smiled at the thought while patted Bepo's head.

_If only I know where Ace is, I could ask for his help. Whitebeard pirates are hella strong, and I bet Marco-san, Thatch-san and Izo-san won't mind helping me. Or to make it easier, maybe I should ask oyaji's help. A single wipe of his power and everyone will – _

"Mirra-ya! Are you listening to me?!!" a smack of a newspaper to her face brought her back to reality as she grumbled while rubbing her red nose. "What?" she replied.

"You daydream a lot." He stated in his matter-of-fact voice.

"Well, can you repeat yourself again?"

An irk built on Law's forehead as he hated the tone she is using. "You don't order me around, Mirra-ya".

"Please...?" she lifted her shoulder and gave a childish smile. Adding the magic word might make the sour puss a little bit happy.

Sighing, "I said I won't risk the lives of my crew just to save you."

_Ah... the taste of rejection. How I wish it would be sweet as a cupcake instead of bitter as a –_

"So you need to provide detailed information regarding your crew before we start our ambush."

"E'ehhh? You are helping me out? For real?" She flinched her head up from keeping staring down, bringing her face closer to his gorgeous one in an instant. She spotted his signature smirk etched to the right, and it made him looked more hotter than usual.

_What the??? This is no time to admire this yellow skinny noodle spotted hat! Focus to your objective, you stupid red-haired!_

"Don't get it wrong. I'm doing this because you saved me and my crew. That's all", the captain slumped back to his chair as he draped his hand to his left. He noticed the female is out spacing again, and for the third time, he got irritated at the balloon-head female in front.

"Mirra-ya! Stop daydreaming!"

"Huh?? Oh right! Yes, anything you said. As long as you kill him is more than enough." She also, slumped back to her sit.

She sighed in relief for finally having him to help her.

"Oh, by the way, before we talk more about this", Mirra digged her hand to the pocket in her pants. She pulled out a small piece of paper that has been cut in a square shape, and showed it to Law. The whole crew gathered in as they noticed the paper is inching to the left slowly on the table.

"The paper is showing the location of my captain, currently. Do you think you can bring me to there, please?" she emphasized the word 'please' to make it sound less like an order, and also to get to a better side of his. She didn't want him to go mad and cancel his promise.

"What is this?" Law raised a bit of his eyebrow. And if anything, it's good to know that the captain at least could react instead of showing his usual calm demeanour.

"I understand if you didn't know about this paper because it's made in New World. This is called vivre card, made from the owner's nail. This card will always move towards the direction of the person. And it also displays the life force of that person. If the person in danger, it will start to burn, and if he dies, it completely disappears." She explained.

"Your captain has been to the New World? Then he must be a big shot!" Anko gasped, which earned the female a snort instead.

"He didn't. His brother did, though. His brother was the one that created that paper and gave it to him. With his power and his crew, I don't think he could survive even a week in the New World sea. I can't imagine if I am forced to go with them to the New World", she shuddered at the thought.

"That bad, huh?" Penguin asked.

"Anyways, just don't let him touch you to burn the mark, then the rest is easy peasy".

"If that's so, then why don't you kill him while he asleep?"

"Because this is where thing is getting interesting. That captain of mine might be weak, but his loyal executives are something else. To get to him, you need to separate the executives from him". Mirra made herself comfortable as she now, leaned against the fluffy bear who is generously offering her some comfort from all the trauma. And surely, the crew is jealous at the sight because the bear has again, successfully, stole the female's attention.


	9. Hearts are on their way

A/n: i am sorry for being inactive for so long. Things happened and it's pretty ugly... But now I am back and will continue the story again

* * *

**9\. "Hearts are on their way"**

Strong breeze blew fiercely as a woman in red hair skidded out from the clouded hail.

Just a minute ago she puffed out her cheek and blew cold breeze, immobilized the crew and took the opportunity to cut them with her sword. But as her ears perked up at the ringing gun shots in the air, she hastily backed off to avoid the bullets.

_Yes, sea stone bullet. _A troublesome indeed.

Looking at the sky as she sensed danger approaching, she saw a giant eagle rained down with the beak aimed sharp to her torso. She parried with her sword and pushed the creature away as she swiped her hand horizontally, shooting icicle flocks, but the creature flapped its wing causing the technique to change direction and headed to her instead. But she's a logia, so she stood still letting the icicle flocks penetrated her body without bringing any harm.

Sweats continued dropping from her chin as she exhaled cold mist, mentally counting the time of when the Hearts will come to rescue. She eyed three of the executives who are standing close near to her right, and another two slowly inching to her back.

She is not an optimist, and she definitely didn't think trusting a pirate is a good idea.

Like she said previously, Trafalgar Law will benefit nothing from helping her, and betrayal is common in alliance. He could have been a stow away from her right now, continuing his journey and dismissing his promises.

But she knew he won't.

Not because Law is a man of words, neither he is a man who acts upon kindness (she couldn't tell whether he is one of the kind guys or not, and not that she cared about that), but simply because in her possession, she has his most valuable prize as a 'hostage', making the said male will definitely fulfilling his promise regardless the situation.

Had she told him that she had sent that 'hostage' to one of the towns in North Blue, Law – with no doubt – will once again cross the Mountain Reverse, get to the town, save the 'hostage' and get back to Grand Line just to kick her ass.

And that said hostage is his favorite scalpel that she stole just an hour before her departure.

–

_Two days before... _

"What do you mean the submarine can't move for a while?" the female half-screamed, half-whispered.

"It is exactly as what I said. The air conditioning plants has catastrophically failed. It is used to cool sensitive equipment on board, which now, has begun to shut down. So we can't set sail at the moment", Law faced the red haired female as she made a dissatisfied look. Sweats trailed down his face and abs as he discarded his shirt and let the air to cool his hearing skin. Just a 20 minutes ago, he received an alarming state from the monitor in the control room, indicating something went wrong to the air conditioner.

Immediate action was taken as the submarine surfaced with two hatches immediately opened, and steam started to pour out and crewmates running to the outside. Law made his way immediately to the problem area, and upon entering the room he was blasted with searing heat, preventing them all from reaching the problem area because the equipment was too hot.

Mirra had taken an initiative by blowing cool blizzard inside, but that didn't mean the crew could immediately run down and make a fix. They still had to wait and ensure every of the equipment – deep and lied within each other – were cool enough to human's touch.

"Captain, we have no choice but to let it cool down overnight", Penguin approached them with a grimace. Mirra 'tsked' at that and looked away as Law pinched the bridge on his nose. With two more days left from reaching the island, Mirra was in tight situation, leaving her with no choice other than to make her own way to the island.

–

Mirra reached Wooley Island after a day and half flying in the sky. A new technique that she just came out with, but yet to perfect it.

It was a technique where her right hand is ice in dragon's claws shape, a pair of ice wings on her back and an ice tail at her tailbone. She tried to replicate dragon's feature and let the ice framed parts of her body as a shield.

But using the technique is so energy consuming because she had to constantly let her power flow and there was no place to stop and rest since it was only a big sheet of sea below her. So she risked her life, betting on her luck that in case she ran out of energy before reaching the island and drop down into the sea, she will totally die.

Mirra sighed as she dragged her feet along the village of the Woolly Island, slowly recollected her energy back after flying for so long. He ears eavesdropped to the chit chats of the villagers who were bargaining their products. Wild dogs and cats were spotted running around too, followed by the shouts and screams of happy children who were playing nearby.

She smiled. She enjoyed the peaceful village. There was no sign of danger or depression looming over them, so she felt contended.

_It must be good to live in peace…._

Failed to pay attention to where she was heading, she accidentally stepped on a pool of mud, making her cringing at the fact of her jeans dirtied by the mud spots.

She fixed her hair by tugging it inside her black cap. She then straightened up the collar of her dark navy cloak and zipped it all the way up, covering almost her whole face from under her nose to the knees. She glanced up at the huge brown ship of Cardinal Pirates docked in front of her, bent her knees slightly before she jumped high and hoped from the railings to the deck.

Her silent arrival went unnoticed by everyone. But her emotion shot up immediately at what laid in front of her.

Furry took over and her expression immediately change to cold demeanour-look, as she made ways to the sandwiched-three figures at the side of the ship. As she was getting closer, she could hear whimpers and begs from a woman – whom unfortunately the one being sandwiched and hugged by the other two men – pleading to be released. The men laughed it off, ravishing their moments and enjoyed her quiet pleas.

Without hesitation, Mirra pulled the back's collar of one of the said men before twirled him around and threw him off overboard, while another one received a strong kick to the stomach sending him crouching on the floor with pain. The commotion caught other's attention, and they tensed at the sudden intrusion. The woman's legs gave off as she slumped down, body visibly shaken from before as tears streamed vigorously. Mirra removed her cloak immediately and draped it over her shoulder, to cover whatever her ripped cloth couldn't cover anymore.

"Oi oi. Who are you to suddenly barge in our ship?" they took stances ready for a battle.

Mirra glanced around, only to notice few more of the women also faced the same fate liked the previous; being forced to treat and serve those assholes.

She growled.

"Get away from those women in 5 seconds", she commanded.

"Ha?? Who do you think you are to – " and the man's word was cut half way as he got shot at his heart with her ice bullet in spike, killing him instantly.

Mirra didn't waste a second, because warning had been issued, and she continued shooting the rest that disobeyed her order, killing some of them on the spot. Only few managed to avoid the bullet from hitting their vital spot, but their injuries have incapacitated their movements.

"5 seconds is up", she said, head tilted down lightly covering her eyes.

"Sh-shit. Its Mirra, our assassin. Get away from her and the women if you don't want to die!" someone shouted and Cardinal Pirates scampered away, trying to spare their own life. The women on the deck sat and stood still at their place. Some expressed slight reliefs while some were scared. And new faces were detected and Mirra sighed in annoyance.

"Get back to your room", she ordered and scooped up the woman that she saved just now and headed to lower deck. The rest of the women followed suit, with no one were left behind except the Cardinal Pirates who were still in wary for any attack from the red-haired. When Mirra and the women truly disappeared, Cardinal Pirates released long breath that they had been holding up all this time.

"What the fuck was that? Who is she?" New members of Cardinal Pirates questioned.

"She is the most shiniest treasure in this ship. But the most shiniest is the hardest to touch." One said.

"And if anyone angers her, their blood is the price to her calm." Another one continued.

New Cardinal pirates stared in questions.

–

_Somewhere in a yellow submarine, heading to Willow Island..._

"Captain, we found this note in Mirra's room", the Surgeon of Death raised his eyebrow as he took the note from Bepo and unfolded it. He read it and his eyes went wide before he rushed to his office, dropping the paper in the process.

The loud 'BAM' sound that he produced when he slammed the control room's door surprised everyone inside, as they exchanged a worried and questioning look.

Bepo collected the paper, and Penguin peered over at the content that caused their captain's furry. Inside, they read:

_Promises can easily be broken when there is nothing can be gained or lose. As such, I have your favourite scalpel in my possession._

_Save me and the women, Trafalgar Law and you won't miss the day of living with it again._

_Your temporary cook,_

_Mirra (the genius)._

Bepo and Penguin stared dumbfoundedly. Mirra even left her lips mark marred with her lipstick on her signature.

Such a brave soul that woman is.

Penguin won't question if Law is currently plotting hundred ways to cut and dissect that woman. No one should touch his scalpel. Let alone making it as a hostage. It's an unspoken rule that every of the Hearts knew.

Sighing, they were brought back to reality only when Shachi flicked his fingers repeatedly in their faces.

–

In a small room that cramped a total of 23 kidnapped woman, Mirra took out an emergency kit from the cabinet, with the intention of treating their wounds and injuries that have been neglected for any treatment since the day she left. She also restocked back their emergency kits, including two spare kits that were kept hidden somewhere with only the knowledge of those women, to prevent them from getting confiscated by the crew.

"How's the situation?" she asked one of them while bandaging her forehead. Maria, one of the victims and the oldest kidnapped woman is aiding her in giving treatment.

"Two of us died from the last time you leaved, new five woman have been kidnapped and three are chained in the torture room right now for trying to run; they are the new ones that got kidnapped recently," she said solemnly.

"So far what the scums did?"

"Other than being their sex slave, they enjoyed beating and cutting us for fun," she cried. Others followed suit, trying to hold back their tears from being scared to be heard.

"They will beat us if we cry. We are scared to cry" one of them said.

Mirra switched to another woman, checking her back before rubbing some ointment to help healing the bruise. Ointment that she specially requested from Trafalgar Law.

"How intense they be?"

"N-not much", she hiccupped. "They are being busy with new orders from their captain, so they r-rarely have time to touch us."

"And they're scared to rape one woman in a big group. None of us…" she sobbed, "none of us so far has been gang rape. So it is better than before. But we don't know about those three prisoned down there," she continued.

Mirra nodded in understand as she continued her work in silence. Then, she took out few clothes that she brought along and handed to them, along with some breads and drinks before leaving the room to save the three prisoned downstairs. She made sure to remind them all to stay in the room and not to go anywhere, which they were more happy to obey.

Ten minutes afterwards, she returned to the room with the three women, none were looking good or in a stable condition. They were skinny, bruised and injured almost everywhere, that it even scared herself for not knowing how to treat them properly. So she laid them down on the beds, treating any obvious injuries that she could, and left the rest with the hope it won't worsen their conditions.

_Life is so cruel… what are the sins of these women that they deserved to be treated this way?_ The thought lingered in her mind as she wiped off the tears that threatened to fall, for she must be tough in front them all.

Mirra patted the head of one of three tortured women gently, and smiled lightly to reassured the scares that reflected on her eyes. She was probably wondering who is she.

"To the new ones that being kidnapped, hi, my name is Mirra. I'm one of the executives of Cardinal Pirates, being forced to, but don't worry because I'm at your side. I will protect all of you from those scums and rest assured, they can't do anything to you guys, as long as I'm here." Their eyes shone in relieves a bit.

But she didn't want to put high hope on them. "I'm sorry but this is the much that I can do to protect you guys. Being one of the executives, as an assassin, I always receive missions from the captain so when I'm away, I can't do anything to stop the crew from doing anything to you guys. And I'm not strong enough to take out all of them, so I can't free you guys," she confessed.

She bite her lips as she guiltily watched the last pieces of hope that the new ones held shattered immediately. Her gaze fell to the floor as she really tried hard to hold the tears from building and falling. She felt bad for not being able to protect them all the time. She couldn't shake off the guilt for letting the crew do whatever to them when she was away. She just couldn't bear their saddened look and broken mental from those experiences.

Mirra still remembered, on the first day she was forced to join the crew, she saw with her own eyes the women being gang rape, with zero ounce of sympathy and empathy. Their tears and begs went deaf eared and it was so sickening that she snapped right away. She threw tantrum, killing them all in a single spree. The women were spared, but they all were bathed with the crew's blood that they started to shiver and look at her as a demon instead.

It took her a while to build trust with them.

On the lucky side, the captain witnessed her tantrum and her speed and accuracy caught his eyes as she was appointed as an official executive, an assassin of the crew. Being one of the highest position allowed Mirra to kill any of the crewmates and get away with it. She truly never understand the system. How the hell those assholes willing to keep up with her captain and be his underlings, despite knowing their lives literally in the hands of the eight executives?

Well whatever… it is not he problem.

The gentle touch from Maria brought her back to reality as she blinked twice.

"We still have a chance to escape this together", she muttered. Her low voice caught everyone's attention, and she stood up immediately, scanning the whole room looking for any sign of snail recorder, and even opened the door widely to see if anyone was eavesdropping. Closing and shutting the door back, she sat, hurdled with the women before taking out a den den mushi.

"I failed my last mission and you guys know what's gonna happen next, right? I might either win my fight against the executives or being doing anything by them. Nevertheless, I want you guys to stay close to each other. If possible, stay in this room. If can't, then make sure you guys know the whereabouts of each other."

She pushed forward the denden mushi, decorated with a strip of grey headband on its head, sleeping profusely. Continued, "I asked help from the crew that I supposed to kill, and they will come later to save me. But before doing that, they will get you all out of here, because we don't want you guys to be their hostages or something."

"So I'll leave it here", she went to one of the drawers, kept it inside a box and showed to them. "When they are about to save you guys, they will give a call. Pick it up and answer to their questions, and follow through their instructions. Don't worry, they are on our side, and they will free us, once and for all," Mirra smiled genuinely. Some of them cried happily knowing help is on its way. They were more motivated to live knowing there are still hope for them.

But before they could overjoy with the news, "none of you should talk about this plan, and just act like your normal days. We don't want them to find it out," she warned them.

–

_Back to the present. _

In a small room that kept Cardinal's kidnapped women inside, Maria has been walking around aimlessly in agitation. Her anxiety rose higher as the loud explosions sounded above the deck getting louder and getting more, indicating a fierce battle has just begun.

She knew what caused it. And she knew the double-faced assassin Mirra – she is kind towards the women and cold towards the Cardinals – is putting her life in between her battle with the executives. All with a sole reason to free them all.

Maria couldn't help her in any ways. She didn't even want to be on the deck, watching the battle just like the rest of Cardinals. Her will is too fragile to watch for the second time how the female got beaten brutally, just because she had failed the mission. The last time she saw the fight she had jumped in between to stop the executives from continuing beating her.

She thought she could stop them. She thought she could reason up with them. Only for them to change their attention to her instead of the red haired. And at the end, Mirra threw herself to the rest of them, keeping Maria safe from getting beaten instead. With the cost of double amount of the torture.

That night and the for the rest of the four month's nights, Maria had nightmares of watching Mirra's beaten body stood tall protecting her despite her own self staggering to do so.

And now, Maria didn't want the same thing to happen. If she is only going to be in Mirra's way, or causing the female to get beaten even more badly, than she is rather staying in the tiny room, praying to God that Mirra could hold herself until the saviour that she talked about come to her rescue.

She believed in fair and justice. And she believed that Mirra's kindness and protection towards the kidnapped women all this time will be paid off. All of them, will be free again.

–

_30 minutes back… (A/n: wow.. Too many flashback huh?? :')) _

In a small room, served as a meeting room located at the far left of the upper deck, Mira crouched down on her knees as the mark on her back is searing and burning her skin. She gritted her teeth, bearing the pain at her best while listening to the mumbling of her captain.

"So you are saying, you failed the mission and dare to come back here alive, again?" The captain, sitting leg-crossed on his usual throne scoffed upon his sight.

He never get bored seeing people bowing to him.

He leaned slightly to the right, resting his right cheek on his palm, while his other hand rested firmly on the arm-rest of the cushioned-chair. On his left and right sides, the executives sat on their own designated place, four by three on each side, facing each other. There was a big gap in between the two sides, covered with red carpet. It was the place for every executive to kneel and bow down before the captain whenever they returned from their missions, and every other executive that around should present to pass their judgment on the success or fail mission of the others.

"Do I accept failure?" captain darkly asked.

"N-no captain. I'm ashamed for not being strong enough."

"And why don't you die in the mission?"

"I almost died. He left me battered in deep wounds and injuries after our fight. But I somehow managed to survive." Panted slightly, "I tried att-tacking him again on our next encounter, but he knew my fighting style very well and took me out again." She closed her eyes while holding the pain.

"Is that and excuse for your failure?"

"No. It's not…" Her breath ragged. She is at the brink of screaming, but she held in.

_You failed, then you get tortured, but you need to remain silence throughout the pain_, that's his policy.

"Very well. Its good you come back alive. You still have lots of assassination missions to carry on. But you know what happens when you fail, right?" captain stopped his devil fruit power, and Mirra sighed in relief when the pain dissipated.

"Yes. I know very well." She looked up, eyes broing into his exciting orbs. The sound of shuffling chairs and the growing intensity of the air alerted her, as she mentally preparing herself.

_Somewhere outside the deck.. _

"Did you heard it? Mirra the assassin has returned," one of the Cardinal pirates said while playing around with the litted cigarette between his fingers.

His voice caught the attention of his intoxicated friend. "That bitch gonna be the one stopping us from getting to the women. Tch," he spat. His nose was busy sniffing on the cocaine powder, too high to care about the situation surrounding them now.

Gulping down a bottle of rum in a rush, another Cardinal pirate released a heavy sigh contented with the drinks, before telling the previous massacre. "She already killed ten of us that were having fun with the women. She was so fast that they can't even see her ice attacks."

"Serve them right. They are bunch of idiots. We already warned them the assassin bitch gonna return soon, yet they still do it openly on the deck," the smoker replied, taking another deep draw before exhaling the poisonous carbon monoxide out of his system.

"They are the new recruiters anyways. They don't know the danger of our assassin, hehe~" slurred the drunken one.

"We don't need weaklings in our group, he continued."

"But we're weak against her as well."

"That bitch thought she could do anything just because she is executive," the smoker snorted, "if I get to drug her to sleep, I swear I rape her till she mentally breaks down," and he continued, taking another big draw of the cigarette before throwing it to the sea.

"Hah! Lots of crap! We know you won't dare to do that 'cause you will die in the next day. She will kill you!"

"You're right," he took out another cigarette.

"But I didn't see any news reported a new kill done by her – "

A sudden explosion could be heard from the meeting room. The door suddenly broken to pieces as a figure of male, cladded in black shirt flying out of it. He knocked against the previous pirate that being talking, groaning in pain before regaining his composure back.

"What the fuck! Sir Gery, why are you flying from the door?" the one that has been drinking the rum asked, momentarily shocked with the sudden occurrence of an executive flying from the meeting room.

Another loud noises could be heard, and this time it is the sound of gun shooting and metal clashing with each other. The crewmates on the deck became wary, and stood shocked when suddenly a woman's silhoute with navy cloak skidded out from the room before jumping to the air, avoiding few arrows aimed at her previous place. Few of the executives rushed out from the broken door.

"Shit! Th-the assassin, Mirra!"

In the air, Mirra breathed in through her mouth, puffing out her cheek in the process before blowing strong hails and cold hurricane to those executives but they jumped away to different direction. Clicking her tongue, she pulled out her dagger to block the next few arrows before throwing it to archer of the crew, Mika.

The dagger plunged to the wall behind her as she avoided it swiftly, but what she didn't know was there is a string attached to it with the other end coiled around Mirra's fingers. Before Mika could react, ice started to form around her fingers and down through the line with such speed, and once reaching the dagger, it exploded into sharp pieces of ice, injuring the archer in the process.

**_Iced-chase,_ **Mirra muttered before releasing the coil and dropped to the ground steadily.

_One down, six more to –_

Her thought is interrupted when a revolver is pressed to her temple, readied to shoot. She dug down immediately and tried to drop-sweep Azuma but he stepped on her spinning leg, stopping her mid-way. Mirra moved away from him while pulling out her sword from the sheath. Blood trickle down from her forehead, because the seastone bullet shot just now grazed it slightly.

"That was fast, Mirra -chan~ Impressive… But it won't be fun if you drop dead too early, right?" he cooed.

Few more other executives surrounded her, with smirks etched on their face. The rest of the crew that had been lounging around the deck scurried to safe places, though their heads peeked out, interested to watch the fight.

_Just few more hours. You better don't back on me, Tra-san._

–

_Somewhere in a certain yellow submarine ..._

"Captain, you okey?" Penguin asked.

Law shifted his gaze from the paper he's holding to Penguin and back to the paper.

"Certainly," he replied. He scribbled something on the paper before putting his finger over his mouth, with his quill pen in between his index and middle finger. Probably doing some thinking. Shachi came from behind, placing a cup of roasted black coffee as he requested. He took a sip, contented with the rich flavour invading his taste bud.

Shachi, still standing behind him, took a glance at what he's being writing, before sitting next to Penguin, across their beloved captain. Currently, the three of them are inside the dining room. Bepo is in control room, with Ray steering the sub to the Wooley Island. The rest of the crew are in their own room, either sleeping, chit chatting or preparing for the upcoming fight.

"Captain, what do you think about Mirra-chan?" Shachi asked.

"She will be fine," Law replied after a bit of silence. Truth to be told, he is worried as well, after hearing the possibility of anything to happen to the said woman if she failed her mission. He himself is restless and wanted to reach Wooley Island immediately to save her. Well, to be exact, to save his scalpel. But he couldn't deny that at the back of his mind, something about her has been nagging constantly. And he is pretty sure it has nothing to do with her bravery act of stealing his item.

_Maybe I'm too stuck with my debt for being saved by her_, Law silently thought to himself.

"She most probably had reached her ship and reported to his crew. I'm really afraid of what's gonna happen to her next," Penguin said, folding his arms over his chest. Shachi nodded in agreement before slumping his chin on the table. Silence in the air again. Only the occasional scribbling sound could be heard coming from the quill pen pressed against the paper.

"Why won't you guys sleep? We are preparing for a battle tomorrow," Law said.

"We can't sleep captain. We are worrying about Mirra-chan, just like you." Shachi immediately shot up his head from the table, looking at the said captain.

"I'm not worrying about her. She is strong, if you guys have forgotten. You guys better get enough rest, so you won't ruin the plan." Shachi pouted at the comment, mumbling there's no way elite team of Heart Pirates like him will cause that.

"That's a bit cold, captain. Mirra-chan might be strong, but she is currently facing six male executives and one female executive. And her captain as well. It's not that easy to defeat them eight." Penguin said while furrowing his eyebrows.

"Well if she has the guts to take my favorite scalpel than she is fine to go against those eight."

"Geez, so cold even with woman, I thought her presence here had softened your heart a bit," and the comment caused Law to stop writing immediately, leaving a big black dot for not lifting the tip of the quill from the paper.

"I didn't get any softer, Penguin-ya. What makes you think that, anyway?" Law looked across, demanding for an answer.

"Just a feeling," Penguin answered hesitantly. Wrong word of choice, he'll lose his head. Shachi just stared back and forth between those two, waiting for his captain's action.

"Get that useless thought out of your mind. You are just plain wrong." He resumed back to his writing.

"By the way captain," Shachi voice gained his attention back, "once we free Mirra-chan from Cardinal Pirates, what we gonna do with her?"

"I'm extracting her heart right in her face as a lesson for stealing from me", a smirk tugged at his lip.

"Captainnnn…" but he received disapproved looks from the two.

Law sighed with hand rummaging his hair. "Just let her be and let her get her wanted freedom. She has nothing to do with us and we're not keeping her in the submarine any longer. We're just paying her back for her previous help and that's the only thing keeping us in contact till now," He replied in bored.

"She said she wants to be a pirate, if she doesn't have a crew, can we invite her to be Heart Pirates?"

The suggestion made by Shachi lightened up Penguin's face as he also agreed to it. They tried to convince Law to their request, but Law simply brushed it off saying their crew are only man and it'll bother her with their antics.

But those still didn't stop their reasoning to have Mirra as part of the crew, and being bothered enough, Law agreed as long as the female want to.

This, of course, spark joys between the two mechanics and due to their loudness, Law kicked them out of the dining room, forcing them to either sleep or do something else that won't bothered him.

Law continued writing as usual, not bothering as the time passed by and getting late. When he noticed he ran out of papers, he decided to take a break.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he stared straight at where his two mechanics sat previously. His mind wandered to their previous conversation. It is possible to let her join, since she is quite strong and could protect herself, just what he expected from each of the members. But it'll be an extra problem for him to watch his crewmates from laying their hands on her. Being the only female on this sub, he needs to worry on her safety or from getting sexually assaulted by one of them, especially if they are drunk and she is in her vulnerable state, which he still yet to find any.

He scoffed. _Women are trouble._

He continued drifting to his own thoughts, before he remembered his last discussion with Mirra on Cardinal Pirates.

_Flashback..._

In the dining room, only Mirra, Law, Shachi, Penguin and Hiro are around to discuss on Cardinal Pirates.

Mirra began with the name of the captain, Condoriano which she found to be funny and snickered along with Shachi upon pronouncing it. The said captain had eaten a devil fruit that granted a Curse-Curse power, which allowed him to give a curse mark to whoever he touches. Once the person is marked, he can activate his power and inflicts a painful burning sensation, subsequently win over the person.

The power is not fearsome much if that's the only thing he could do, but because he could play around with the degree of pain the he inflicted, people often found it unbearable and hard to muster their strength while they are in pain. Other than his power, he is also generally strong with his built-up body and speed. Not really fast, but still enough to amaze his opponents and catch them to plant his marks.

Condoriano also has a total of eight loyal executives, including Mirra herself - being forced to - and none of the enemies had able to make their ways to reach the said captain, since the executives are always able to defeat them first. So, Condoriano seldomly participated in any fights.

The name of Cardinal Pirates came from the cardinal points, north, east, south and west and also became the reason behind the distribution of the executives. With Condoriano in the center, he will always be protected by four main executives in each direction; him being in the center, Jones in the North, Mary in the East, Mirra in the South and Gery in the West. Mary and Gery has two assistances each which represented the intercardinal points, since they are great to be a group mission-carrier, while Jones and Mirra are more to a solo mission-carrier.

Gery is the treasure-hunter of the crew. He will be the one to lead a massive group of Cardinal pirates to rob the entire town that they landed upon or attacked any ships that they encountered for stealing purpose. Gery is a martial artist, very strong, skillful and sadistic towards the enemies. He loved to break their bones and twist their joints in any possible ways before killing. Under him are Benn and Mika, representing the northwest and southwest points. Benn is a blaster, receiving that tittle for his specialty in fighting with bombs and explosions while Mika is the archery, with strong instinct and 99% accuracy.

Mary, representing the East, is the navigator of the crew. She has a devil fruit power, that gave her the ability to heighten the sensitivity of pain on anyone. Because of that, she is also the torturer of the crew, and preferred to be called as such. Under her are Azuma and Airis, representing the northeast and southeast points respectively. Azuma is a sniper and fought with riffles or revolver and his accuracy is in par with Mika, and he is the only person with sea stone bullet. Airis is a devil fruit user as well, a paramecia to be specific. He is able to turn into an eagle, and hence the scouter of the crew.

And the strongest one, is Jones, the strategist and representing the North point. He could manipulate black wind. Don't ask how, but one thing for sure, his wind attacks always in black color and its very fast that it could cut your body to half if you don't avoid it.

Mirra didn't have much information about him since he had only showed most of his power once, when Mirra fought with him due to her failure in the last mission. It is strongly advised for them to not go against Jones on their own because he definitely won't hold back. He favored cutting off the opponents neck horizontally or cutting the opponents to half from head to toes vertically.

Lastly, is Mirra herself. The hail and ice user, also the cold-blooded assassin of the crew. At least that's what she always did when she's with the crew. She admitted herself that she had dropped her cold act throughout her stay with the Heart Pirates, simply because it is all an act so the whole crew won't think of doing anything stupid with her.

Together the eight of them formed an impenetrable defense for the captain.

Lastly, before wrapping out the discussion, Mirra had requested the Heart Pirates to first save the kidnapped women, before anything. She didn't want any of them to involve in the fight accidentally. In fact, Airis had the tendency to hold them as hostages, and knowing Heart Pirates are soft towards women, – not Hiro though, he didn't give a shit – they will probably hold back their attacks.

Airis also loved to fly around during night time, so they need to watch out to not be detected near the island.

_Flashback ended..._

Law opened his eyes, silently recalling his plan. He has decided to send Rain and his group to infiltrate the ship, acting as the first line fighters to distract the small fries. Then, Bepo's group will silently headed to the location of the kidnapped women, while him and his group will face the executives and the captain. Mirra could help any group she wanted to, it didn't matter as long as Condoriano is defeated. But Condoriano might activated the mark on Mirra 's back if he found out she planned to take him out.

_Maybe I should throw her to the sea and see if the mark has effect on her or not. Maybe the cursed mark will not work when in contact with sea water,_ Law silently thought, while running his slender fingers through his silky raven hair.

Loud footsteps suddenly could be heard, coming to the direction of the dining room. Bepo burst through the door, "captain, we are reaching Wooley Island in five minutes," he said nervously.

Law immediately leaved his seat, heading to the control room while his ears caught loud shout from Shachi and Penguin forcing the rest of the crewmates to wake up and be ready, followed by small shriek by some of them. Law just smirked, feeling more eager to begin the plan and free the red haired woman.

And also to instill some fear on her for stealing his possession afterwards...

He promised he will do that.


End file.
